Hello,

My name is Alex Cromwell and I live in Virginia. I am fundraising for my former student and friend Safiullah who lives in the western part of Afghanistan. Safiullah was a participant in an online dialogue program that I co-facilitated between my students at American University and students and youth leaders in Afghanistan. The program took place in the Spring 2018 semester when I was still a professor at American University. During the program, Safiullah stood out for his desire to connect with and learn from Americans and his open attitude. We have stayed in touch ever since. (He has asked me to keep his last name and exact location confidential to protect his safety.)

When the Taliban took over Kabul in mid-August of this year, I reached out to Safiullah because I was worried about his safety. He described his situation to me and said he is hoping to flee the country when/if the possibility arises. However, he is the sole breadwinner in his household of 11 people, which means he cannot abandon them. Safiullah is also currently unable to work because he is afraid of being discovered by the Taliban for his work as a journalist and because of his connections with the international community. Despite the Taliban’s promises of amnesty for those previously involved with the international community, there are reports of human rights defenders and journalists being hunted down by them. While Safiullah and his family really need to flee the country, what they need more than anything in the meantime is a way to cover their expenses while he is unable to work. The money will be spent on feeding his family (buying things like rice, oil, grains, and flour), covering their electricity bill, and buying tablets for his father who suffers from kidney cancer. So I have started this fund to raise money for him and his family. Please see the letter below that Saifullah wrote that better describes his situation.

“Dear Sir/Madam

I hope you are fine and well in receiving this message.

This is Safiullah from Afghanistan where I was born, grew up, studied, and worked with ups and downs throughout the years. I was born during the Taliban era in the 1990s, and as I am writing this text we are living under the Taliban supremacy for the second round in Afghanistan, in the west of the country. I am scared and have nothing to hope for in my own future or that of my family. I have 8 siblings, and my older mother and father are too sick to work. I studied journalism and mass communication in western part of Afghanistan.

Since I was a child I have worked in child labor to help my family make ends meet. While I was studying at school I start working with different parts of local organizations. When I was in the last year of school I started working as a freelance writer for different media outlets and started becoming a journalist. After finishing school, I started studying journalism and became more vocal in my society as much as I could to protect human rights and become a well-known journalist. Alongside my part-time work in journalism, I joined the academic institution where I was studying for my B.A as a public relations officer. Meanwhile I took a serious part-time responsibility to work on a young voice magazine where I was the chief editor and wrote a specific column of the magazine every week. My writings were mostly on promoting and defending human rights.

In 2018 I joined project-based works with different donors such as USAID, IWPR, ActionAid Afghanistan (UNICEF), Open society Afghanistan, USIP, and other donors. Since then, in recent years, journalists have been threatened and censorship has little by little created more and more risks for journalists. I stopped working as a journalist; in the last 1.5 years I haven’t written due to the threats towards me and my family. During my work also, my team and I have received death threats because we worked for human rights and humanitarian issues.

While the situation was bad already, the Taliban takeover has made things much, much worse. I have not left my house since 12 August 2021 due to the Taliban control of my city. I am the only breadwinner of the family, a family with 11 members, and I am the only one who was previously able to work outside of the house. I have 6 sisters and 2 little brothers. There are some reports that the Taliban are spying on people to find journalists and those who worked for human rights and in humanitarian fields. If they search from home-to-home they would kill or arrest me and would force my younger sisters into marriage or sex slavery. I will do whatever I can to stop this animal action. So while my family must get out of the country as soon as possible, in the meantime, your help would greatly be appreciated so we can pay for necessary expenses until we can figure out a way out of the country. Any money raised will also help us flee when the time comes. Thank you so much for your consideration.”

Thank you so much.