A Life for an Afghan Family - Urgent Campaign

On August 21st 2021, a young Afghan man launched a message in a digital sea – a plea for help to save his life and his family’s life from retribution by the new conquerors of his country. The family were in hiding and fearful for their lives after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban on August 15th, 2021. The email was factual, direct. It wasted no words. It reached me, someone he had corresponded with only once before and had never met in person.

Through a chain of contacts and a network of key supporters, the young man and his family – his two young daughters, both under the ages of 10, his wife, mother, brother, and sister-in-law – were evacuated from Kabul on October 21st, 2021. It was a sad day – they were leaving their homes and their lives, which had been brutally altered since August 15th; a terrifying day, involving a literal sprint on the tarmac to the airplane; and, finally, a jubilant day – against very difficult odds, they escaped with their lives intact, all together. The future seemed hopeful.

It has been a year since the family fled.

They need your help to rebuild their lives. They have no other support. We have tried for a year and every other opportunity has closed its doors. As a child refugee myself whose life was saved by the support of complete strangers, this campaign is personal for me.

The family has been languishing in a refugee center in a country that refuses to recognize them as refugees. Every single day, they experience profound anxiety and uncertainty over their futures and the futures of their young daughters. They desperately want a chance to restart their lives, feel human, work, go to school, have agency, and be functioning members of a society.

Recently, the Canadian government announced a special program for Afghan refugees – a rare sliver of hope for the family. Between October 17, 2022 to October 17, 2023, or until the first 3,000 applications, Afghan refugees can apply for Canadian residency through the Canadian Group of 5 sponsorship program, even if they do not have refugee status from the UNHCR or from their temporary country of residence. After a year of trauma and with practically no other prospects, the family is desperate to be one of the first 3,000 applicants to jump on this opportunity.

Your donation will go directly to a Canadian account set up by the Group of 5 sponsors for the family. The Canadian government requires that the Group of 5 sponsors secure enough funds to support the family for a minimum of one year, with a possibility of financial responsibility for the family for up to three years. The money in the account will not be touched until the family arrives in Vancouver, Canada and will be used exclusively to meet the family's financial needs for up to three years. Your gift will be returned if the minimum amount has not been raised or the Canadian government denies the sponsorship application. The family is endlessly grateful for your support in any amount.

Please note that due to Canadian sponsorship rules, names and personal information of the Afghan family cannot be published. If you have any questions or want to know more about the campaign, please do not hesitate to contact me. This campaign has been approved by the Afghan family on whose behalf I am acting.

Photo credit: Steve Evans, 2005. Afghanistan textiles, Wikimedia Commons.