Hello! We're Keesa Ocampo and Ariel Neidermeier from the creative agency, WeSparq. We are Bay Area natives who are fundraising on behalf of the Hofioni Family, the first Afghan refugee family to be relocated to Contra Costa County in Northern California from Kabul. The family includes father Sayed, mother, Zarifa, 5 year-old daughter, Kowsar, 3 year-old daughter Zainab and a newborn baby daughter, Tajalla.


They are currently based in Concord, Calif. and are working to find long-term transportation, housing and support after a horrific 9-day journey from Kabul less than a month ago. Through the Noor Islamic and Cultural Community Center in Contra Costa and in partnership with Dan and Nancy Harrington of Books for the Barrios, we have been helping coordinate community donations and aid. But the transition is ongoing as they are still in need of a car and financial support to hasten their independence and create a stable life for their family.


Sayed formerly worked for a nonprofit advocating against gender-based violence in Kabul and is now planning to enroll in a training and apprenticeship program to get his certificate in Plumbing. As a father of 3 daughters, he knew when the Taliban came back to power that he could only provide a better life for his daughters if he took them away from Afghanistan. Zarifa gave birth by emergency C-section to their daughter, Tajallah, just 10 days before she and her family fled aboard a US Military plane. She is currently taking English lessons with a long-term goal of taking a course in embroidery to become a seamstress. Kowsar just completed her first week of Kindergarten and has made new friends. The Hofionis are currently looking into preschool options for Zainab.


We are a positive impact creative agency called WeSparq (https://www.wesparq.co/) and are working to amplify awareness for the Hofionis and other refugee families with the aim of raising much-needed support for these families who are looking to heal and start fresh in the midst of so many global crises. This campaign means so much to us as descendants from immigrant parents (we are Filipinx-American). Both our mothers' families left the Philippines in the face of Ferdinand Marcos' dictatorship and had little support when they moved to San Francisco in the late 60s and 70s. Similarly, the Hofionis have been ripped from their homeland, families, communities and traditions in Afghanistan and they need a helping hand to get them on their feet.


If you have been keeping up on the ongoing press coverage of the U.S. military's evacuation from Afghanistan and wondered how you could support refugee families, this is your cause! Give your support *directly* to the first Afghan family relocated to the Bay Area who has suffered directly from the Afghanistan War by donating anything you can.


We'll be sending updates on our progress but this fund will go towards the purchase of a second-hand vehicle so that Kowsar can be brought to Kindergarten, so Sayed can file all their paperwork and seek employment, and so Zarifa can seek the medical care she needs from complications of her C-section. Any additional funds will be used towards Tajalla's diaper fund, for the family's clothing, and the humanitarian work of the Noor Islamic and Cultural Community Center and Books for the Barrios.


Thank you for sharing and partaking in their healing.