Reunite a Young Afghan Refugee with Her Family

Hello. We are raising funds to help bring the family of our foster daughter to be reunited with her in the United States. Please understand that for her safety and the safety of her family, we are not including any names or photos of her or her family in this GoFundMe page.

She was 15 years old when she was separated from her family at the Kabul airport in the chaos of Afghans desperately trying to leave Afghanistan when the US withdrew from Afghanistan and the Taliban took over the country in August of 2021. She was the only member of her family that made it onto an evacuation flight, leaving behind her parents and her eight siblings. Since August of 2021, she has been separated from her family and experiencing the ongoing trauma of not only that separation, but also her fear for their safety and for their lives.

Her family currently has no source of income and they are essentially living off of the money that she is able to send them from her earnings from a part time job and occasional small donations from us. Due to the extreme restrictions on women’s rights under the Taliban, her mother and sisters are not allowed to work, go to school, or go out unaccompanied by male relatives, and they rarely leave their home. Her brothers who are of school age have stopped attending school because of harassment and assaults they suffered at the hands of the Taliban going to and from school. Her father and her teenage brother have been repeatedly threatened and assaulted by the Taliban.

Although we are trying to get her family evacuated as the family of an unaccompanied minor refugee, the situation is complicated, and though we remain hopeful, it's not guaranteed that this route will be open to all of her family members. In this uncertainty, we're preparing for a plan B to request Humanitarian Parole visas for potentially all of them, as well as a possible student visa for her oldest sister, who had graduated from high school and was about to begin her college education when the Taliban took over and all hopes for her future were crushed.

Bringing them here through humanitarian parole and student visas will require significant funds that they simply don’t have, and don’t have any way of earning. We're happy to break down costs for anyone interested in donating who already knows us personally, but for the sake of brevity, we can assume that the cost of visas and travel to a third country, as well as the other costs associated with applying for humanitarian parole could be anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000 for each of them. The costs associated with bringing her oldest sister on a student visa could be up to $30,000.

The funds raised through this GoFundMe will be used in the three following ways:

Priority 1: If efforts to bring them as the family of an unaccompanied minor refugee fail, these funds will be used toward their Humanitarian Parole applications and travel costs associated with HP, and student visa and college costs.

Priority 2: If her part time job earnings become insufficient for the survival of her family, some funds may be used for their subsistence.

Priority 3: If her family is evacuated as the family of an unaccompanied minor refugee and they are reunited here, the funds will be used to help them begin their new life here, through subsidizing their housing and other living expenses.

Thank you for reading, and for your generosity. Your contribution could save lives.