Hi! My name is Sue Useem, and I've started this fundraiser for my Afghan friend, Mardan, who is a registered UNHCR refugee living in Makassar, Indonesia. He came as an unaccompanied minor after the murder of his father Salman at the hands of the Taliban in 2014.  I became friends with Mardan because I saw his his warm spirit and kindness towards others. He loves to help his friends and fellow refugees, including spending his time teaching English to Indonesian orphans. The rest of Mardan's family is still in Afghanistan. Since the Taliban has taken over, his family has gone into hiding, since they are still at risk of Taliban/ISIS-K persecution or worse.

Mardan is one of thousands of Hazara refugees currently trapped in Indonesia. I've come to know him since the Indonesian government released him from a detention center in Bali in 2016 and relocated him to the city of Makassar where I often go. There is no future left for Mardan in Afghanistan OR Indonesia. This is the sum of the money needed in order to find a sponsor in Canada who could resettle him and allow him to regain his life again. 

I'd like to tell you the story of Mardan and why we need to both raise this money and find a sponsor in Canada .

Mardan was born in a small village in Ghazni, Afghanistan in 1997 to a loving family of farmers. He is from the ethnic minority known as Hazara who are some of the most persecuted people on earth in the last 100 years. With the takeover of the Taliban and the rise of ISIS-K, the  Hazara are in a more dangerous situation than ever . 

His memories as a boy are happy ones, such as playing volleyball and soccer with friends. When it was summer they would go swimming in irrigation canals. A big group of friends liked to ride around on bicycles and go sledding. They even once tried to create their own ice cream by combining sugar with the snow from the nearby mountains.

But his happy existence came to an end when his beloved father Salman was murdered by the Taliban in 2014. Salman was trying to pick up supplies for the family shop in the nearby city of Ghazni, but the Taliban accused him of working for the government and shot him. For many days Mardan's family did not know where Salman's body was - until it was found on the side of the road. 

Mardan was 17 years old when his father was murdered. He had also worked in his dad’s shop so he was told he would also be targeted by the Taliban. He had never left his village and knew nothing of the outside world, and he had no plan except to try and keep himself safe. He went to Kabul where his uncle organized a passport. During this time he was kept alone in a room and was told nothing until suddenly he was put on a plane to New Delhi. After two weeks in India he was told again he needed to leave for Malaysia. As soon as he got to Malaysia he was taken to a strangers home and locked inside for a few weeks. Then, he was taken deep into the jungle with many refugees from various countries.

About twenty of them formed a human chain and they were told to walk through deep mud that led into high waves of the ocean. Finally they saw a boat and pulled themselves onto it. They had no idea where they were going or what was going to happen next. On the morning after a few hours at sea, Mardan landed in a country he had never heard of before: Indonesia.

He had landed in the city of Medan, on the island of Sumatra. Quickly he was put into a car and driven for many hours across the island. Then the car entered a large ferry and crossed onto the island of Java. He came to the city of Jakarta, where the smugglers dropped him and others off in front of a building with the letters UNHCR on it and told him they would come back, but he never saw them again. Mardan had no idea what the UNHCR was or why he had been dropped off in front of its building. Eventually, a UNHCR representative found him and asked him for his name and other details. Mardan told them the truth. He found some other Hazara and they told him of a place around Jakarta where he could stay called Bogor. He stayed there for 20 days and was told again that if he went to the city of Pekanbaru that people would be there to help and put him into a special safe place for refugees. He had no idea if this was true but he believed those around him and went there.

At Pekanbaru the Indonesian immigration officials took him and held him for about a week. Then the staff of UNHCR and IOM arrived and took his information. He still had no idea what their organizations did. After about two months, Mardan heard an announcement from the Immigration office that he was being sent to the island of Bali, which was another place he had never heard of. When he arrived in Bali and saw the jail cell that he had to go into, he bursted into tears. It was then he finally realized that there was no safe place for refugees in Indonesia. He thought he was going somewhere safe, but he didn’t think that place was going to be jail. Indonesia has never ratified the UNHCR treaty on refugees, so they are treated as illegal immigrants.

That jail in Bali became his home, along with 120 other souls from many countries including lots of other children. In their tiny cell there were ten other men, and they had to share one mattress. They were constantly begging the staff there to give water in the extreme heat of Bali. To keep his mind busy during this time, he read many English books.

One day a young woman from the UNHCR came to interview Mardan. She told him that she would present his story to the main office in Jakarta and they would decide if he was really a refugee or not. A few months later he got the good news that his refugee status had been approved and he was given the UNHCR card. But unlike many refugees before him, he was held in the Bali detention center for another two years without explanation. During that time, he lost all hope.

Mardan felt reborn when the IOM came to him in 2017 to let him know he was being moved to a new place called Makassar. They told him to please be patient and they will help him get resettled to a third party country which at the time seemed likely it would be the United States. So he was happy to go to Makassar and wait to see what would happen next. But very soon the news came that the United States would stop resettling nearly all refugees. To make matters worse, Mardan came to Indonesia as a solo unaccompanied minor, but because the process took so long he was registered as an adult refugee, making it harder to resettle because priority always went to families and children. Nevertheless, he has tried to make the best of his current situation in Makassar with a grace that continues to impress me.

In the past four years Mardan has spent his time volunteering to both help the long-suffering refugee community of Makassar as well as Indonesian orphans. To make sure that he will be amply skilled for resettlement, he has become an incredible cake decorator and would be a great asset at a bakery or restaurant in Canada.

Like every single refugee currently trapped in Indonesia, there is no future for Mardan there as Indonesian policy refuses to allow them to work, go to school, travel, or even own a motorbike. The only option left is for Mardan to resettle in Canada, and ALL of the money raised here will be used to sponsor his resettlement. 

I can't change what has happened in Afghanistan, but with your help we can change what will happen to one boy who deserves a new life in a safe place. Please help me make that happen. 

With all the gratitude in the world,
Sue