Help our Afghan refugee friends in Mexico

Dear Friends,

Many of you contributed generously to our previous GoFundMe to raise the immigration filing fees to try to get our friend's family members safely out of Afghanistan and to the U.S. We are thrilled to report that all of them are now safely out of Afghanistan, and most of them have made it to Mexico, where all ten are now sharing a small apartment in Mexico City.

There remains a long road ahead. As of mid-February, USCIS had received 43,000 humanitarian parole applications and processed fewer than 2,000. Everyone else waits in limbo. Our friends are unable to get jobs in Mexico due to visa restrictions and the language barrier. Thus we decided to do a second GoFundMe and ask if you can find a few more dollars to contribute to help them make it through the coming months of waiting. We know these are tough economic times for many, and we are so grateful for even the smallest contribution.

 

With love and solidarity,

Rachel, Jaye, and Lisa

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Our friend asked us to share the following on behalf of his family:

 

Greetings,

 

Without a doubt, 2021 was one of the most difficult years for the Afghan nation. Despite significant sacrifices of the people of Afghanistan and support of the international community, Afghanistan fell to an extremist group, to say the least.

 

However, it was the support of people like yourselves, all around the world, that lessened the suffering of some of the luckier citizens of Afghanistan like my own family in their endeavors to flee Afghanistan to safety and to try to build a future for their children.

 

On behalf of my family, thank you for your generous contributions towards their application fees. Being able to submit their applications was a relief for everyone involved in their evacuations out of Afghanistan.

 

Through the support of a multitude of people, all three sisters and their families (11 people in total) have been safely evacuated out of Afghanistan. The youngest is in a refugee camp looking forward to resuming her medical studies upon arrival, the other two have safely arrived in Mexico to await their application processing. They no longer live in fear but looking forward to getting through the application process to settle in more permanently. The two sisters, now in Mexico, were school teachers: one taught physics and maths and the other one English language. Once settled, both sisters are hoping to reconnect with their hundreds of students still in Afghanistan through an online platform to continue to teach them via distance. The husbands of the two sisters also wish to pursue their career once resettled. One of them was a journalist and the other one an airport screening officer in Afghanistan.

 

Now that both families have reached safety, my friends Rachel, Jaye, and Lisa have kindly offered their time to run another fundraising campaign so we can support the two families while in Mexico. The two couples and their six children (three children in each family) between the ages 2 to 11, need help to pay for accommodation, food, medicine, and other essentials.

 

We would be grateful if you could extend your generosity to support our next fundraising campaign as well.

 

Best wishes and with thanks,

TH