Help Yousef get a place to live with heat

My name is Colin O'Donnell and I served in Afghanistan during OEF in 2009. One of my interpreters, "Yousef", has been attempting to emigrate to the United States for years through the Special Immigrant Visa program. He had served US and NATO forces for over a decade and was in the middle of the SIV process when NATO ended the ISAF mission in Afghanistan in 2021. The Taliban quickly took over the country and have been carrying out acts of retribution against people who helped NATO--including Yousef. He has already been caught and beaten once and continues to live on the run, away from his wife and two children, working odd jobs as a laborer when he can. He has a SIV number and is awaiting Chief of Mission approval, which could take years. Rep. Underwood's and Sen. Duckworth's office have been helpful, but unfortunately there is no way to tell when or if his COM approval will come.

I have spent thousands of dollars personally over the past year and a half trying to help Yousef (and a few rough weeks volunteering with AA21), but with no end in sight and a second child on the way I can no longer bear the costs myself. This money is going to support finding a place to live that has heat as well as the administrative/logistical costs of Yousef acquiring new passports for him and his family to increase his options of leaving the country. I have multiple, secure ways to transfer these funds safely to Yousef, but the most reliable and secure so far has been Western Union.

If you feel like you want to help but this method doesn't fit for you or if you'd like to maximize with matching, tax deductions, etc, please consider some of these great organizations which I can personally vouch for:

https://www.alliedairlift21.org/

https://www.thevillagemission.org/

https://www.nooneleft.org/

https://www.lirs.org/

If for whatever reason GoFundMe shuts this down because we are transferring money directly to Afghanistan, the money will go to these four organizations instead.