August 25 Update

Roshan and most of his family are Safe!

After days of ordeal, Roshan and Shegufa finally made it into the airport and on a plane out of Afghanistan. They were able to bring Roshan’s siblings and an uncle. His parents, Aunt, and young cousins remain in Kabul. He was in Qatar briefly, but has left and just just arrived in Germany.

Isa is still in Qatar, and still super happy to be there. He is doing an interview with our friend Pamela Varkony, so we will send a link to the interview in our next update.

Other good news – a young family who are friends of Arif and qualified for the Special Immigrant Visa because of the wife’s work as an interpreter are finally safe. The couple and their one month old baby should be on the way to Germany or the US soon.

Arif’s siblings have received their Visas from Australia but are struggling to gain access to the airport. The got close a few times today but then there was a terrorist threat alert and they were told to leave the area by the Australian government. We hope they can get some rest and that they will be successful tomorrow.

We haven’t heard from Ghani since he left for Kabul from Pakistan. The trip should take 12-16 hours, but we aren’t sure exactly when they left or if they had to take any detours.

When Ghani manages to make it there safely, we will do our best to get him, Sadiqa, and Ghani’s other family members out, but the situation is so dire. And while the US is committed to getting citizens and green card holders and Visa holders out, they are actively discouraging people from trying to bring any family other than spouses and non-adult children.

There is less and less hope for people stranded there – friends and families of so many of our extended Afghan family here… the system for getting visas through the refugee system has proven impossible to penetrate. We go around and around the outside, but like all those people trying to get into the airport in Kabul, we are not finding a way in.

We are trying to remain hopeful that they can survive to get out some other way and we will do everything we can to help them from wherever they manage to escape to. We are happy for those few who are getting out and quite worried for those who remain there.

As someone said to me recently, what we thought was going to be a sprint has turned into a marathon. Please continue to contact your members of congress to urge them to help Afghans at risk – families of US citizens and others with ties to the West who are in danger. Please continue to pray for all of them.

We are starting to consider that there will soon be plenty to do here to support the families that have escaped and will provide more information on opportunities for helping as we learn about them.

Thank you.