Help Afghan Humanitarians

For more than twenty years, as the US was engaged in the fight against the Taliban, many non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), charity and aid groups, human rights groups, and others, assisted the effort through provision of humanitarian assistance and community development. Often times, these groups received funding through donor governments from Western countries to provide support in rebuilding the country as the fight against the Taliban continued. During this time, these organizations employed many thousands of Afghan citizens, who risked their own well-being by taking on work that would be seen as opposing the Taliban. This is especially true for those who worked on projects related to sensitive political and cultural issues, such as women’s reproductive health care, girls’ education, or efforts to end forced child marriage.

With the Taliban’s forced capture of the government in mid-August, many of these local aid workers are now directly at risk of Taliban retribution due to their affiliation with these foreign organizations and governments, as well as work on these many, varied humanitarian projects. The effort is underway to try and find safe passage for these local workers to leave Afghanistan, with both understanding for the threat the face and respect for their many years of service to the humanitarian cause.

The US Government announced in August expanded eligibility for these Afghan humanitarians to travel to the US under a prioritized refugee status. Because many have applied for that program, implementation and processing has slowed significantly. Likewise, because the United States no longer has an embassy in Kabul, Afghans are required to relocate to a third country in order to process the paperwork for eventual resettlement in the US. That process may take as long as 12-14 months. The challenge is finding a country and government willing to host these families for such an extended period of time. Work is ongoing with partner governments who may be willing to provide visas for these Afghans for humanitarian purposes, providing them a place to safely work on processing paperwork for longer term resettlement in the US or European countries.

The government of Brazil has agreed to issue visas to Afghanistan for this very purpose. But to ultimately support their stay in the country, the government is working with humanitarian groups and charities in Brazil to sponsor these Afghan families, providing for them lodging, basic living expenses, and support with language learning and other short-term resettlement and adaptation. While these groups have some funds to assist with this effort, they will also rely on the generosity of the friends and supporters of these Afghans to accommodate this resettlement.

So here's the ASK:

The cost to support one Afghan for the initial six months of stay in Brazil is $3500. This includes the cost of airfare from a Middle East transit location to Brazil (approximately $1100) and six months of housing and living assistance ($400/month).

The initial goal is to support five Afghan humanitarian aid workers who are eligible for final resettlement in the US and who will settle in Brazil during processing. However, there are many more that could be assisted. As funds are available to assist more families, efforts will be made to continue to assist those working to relocate out of the country.