My name is Kirsten Dimovitz and my family/friends (Team D) and I are raising funds to help my colleague, Mahdi Haji, be resettled in the United States and avoid deportation to Somalia where he faces life-threatening risks. We are doing this through the Welcome Corps program which helps groups of Americans sponsor refugees to rebuild their lives in the US. To complete the application, we need to raise enough funds for Mahdi to cover his basic costs (rent, food, clothes) for his first few months in America.

The reason we are doing all of this is to help Mahdi avoid deportation from Egypt (where we worked together and he has lived the last 6 years) to Somalia, a country he left when he was 2 years old because of tribal violence and civil war that hurt his family. After Mahdi's father was killed, his family fled to Yemenn where they were certified refugees for many years. Mahdi grew up there and lived there most of his life until armed militia groups tried to recruit him. When he was unwilling to join, they hunted him down and put his house under surveillance. They wanted to either force him to join or hurt him trying. Mahdi was unable to leave his friend's house where he was hiding, go out in the street, or even get his own food because the armed group was looking for him everywhere. Eventually, he realized the only way he could escape safely and live his life was if he left the country. So, Mahdi travelled to Egypt - where we met!

Mahdi and I worked together in Egypt at a refugee support organization, and became friends. When my family and friends visited Egypt, he always joined us to take them around and show them the country. We both love helping people, horseback riding, the desert, and going on adventures. When Mahdi's asylum case was rejected in Egypt (due to political reasons), and he was told he would have to leave the country himself or be deported, we tried many different ways for him to stay in Egypt or to stay in the Middle Eastern region. None of these efforts worked, and we realized his only hope to avoid deportation to a country he knows nothing about and risks being harmed or killed in was to be resettled in America.

So we are here now, asking for your generous support to bring a wonderful person who will contribute so much to our community to a safe place. Mahdi is smart and well educated: he holds a degree in information technology and has years of experience working in project management. He speaks English perfectly, and worked as an English teacher for English-as-a-second-language (ESL) students. And he also has a lot of experience working in the refugee and immigrant sector. He will be someone who if given the chance to find refuge in America, will give back to others, and help them integrate and thrive here too.