Help an Afghan Family to Safety

Dear friends,

 

Fayaz and his family are in grave danger of persecution from the Taliban. He worked in partnership with the US government on initiatives to bring jobs and foreign investment to Afghanistan. Fayaz's father is a women’s rights activist who was kidnapped and tortured by the Taliban back in 2015. Due to their public work with the American government and their vocal activism, Fayaz and his family are now targets of the new Taliban government and are currently in hiding. I am using an alias and trying to avoid details to protect their identities.

 

Fayaz has a US Afghan Allies (P1) visa in process, but he needs to be outside of Afghanistan to process the visa. Right now, Fayaz’s only chance to find safety for himself and his family is to get to Turkey. His Turkish Visa expires on October 30th, which means we only have four weeks to get him out of Afghanistan. Because of the enormous demand for air travel from tens of thousands of others trying to flee the country, airline tickets from Kabul to Istanbul, transfer visa’s and the cost of a quarantine hotel upon arrival will cost $4000. There is a severe financial crisis in Afghanistan, and Fayaz cannot easily withdraw money. Although I cannot wire him money, he can take a short-term loan to purchase a ticket which he can payoff upon arrival in Turkey and can access the funds raised through this campaign.

 

Fayaz has two young sons, three years and eight months, a wife, two sisters (one in high school and one in university who are now both homebound as the Taliban has shuttered education for women) and two elderly parents, all are living together under the same roof in a daily state of fear of the Taliban.

 

To help him, we have a phased fundraising strategy:

 

It may be months or even years before Fayaz will be able to reunite with his family and given he is their primary breadwinner and will need to look for a new job, your donation will help him provide for his family while he figures out his new situation and hopefully also pay for the legal support and processing to help his family travel to Turkey and reunite. 

Please donate what you can. If you cannot donate today, please follow Fayaz’s story and consider sharing this with friends and family who might be able to help. Even the smallest donations are beneficial.

 

Thank you all so very much,

 

Adrienne

 

**Disclaimers: Because gofundme does not support money transfers to Turkey I will be disbursing the funds raised into my personal account and transferring the funds to a bank account Fayaz will set up in Turkey. If Fayaz cannot set up a bank account immediately, which may be tricky, I will send some funds via Moneygram until he sets up a bank account.

 

There are many risks associated with this fundraiser given the uncertainties of travel out of Afghanistan. It is possible that Fayaz is not able to purchase a ticket within the time he has for Turkey, in which case he may try other options such as Pakistan or the UAE, which may take many months or years. The plan will be to save the money in the gofundme account to help him and his family with new travel options as they become available as well as provide for critical/emergency needs. 

 

There is also the possibility that non-refundable tickets are purchased and then trips are cancelled, in which case the money may be lost.