| Isa and Roshan in Afghanistan |
 Many of you have asked how things are going, so here is quick update…The latest…Isa and Roshan are attempting to move up their departure flight dates, but things are a bit tricky with so many people trying to get out of Kabul. Ghani is still safe in Pakistan and working on an exit strategy. Roshan is exploring options for getting his family to India or Pakistan, but his mother and little brother don’t have passports and the Government closed the passport office. Isa is having similar challenges as well as trying to assist families from his village who fled and are in Kabul without any resources like food or shelter. I have written a letter that I am sending to various government officials and have included it at the bottom of this email. Feel free to take whatever you like and write your own version. The situation is so much more terrible than I think anyone anticipated, and it is happening so much faster. Several folks have expressed some incredulity around Isa and Roshan being in Afghanistan and not just leaving right away. So I have come up with a way to try to convey the context in a way I hope you can relate to. It could be fire, floods, storms, or war – any disaster outside of your control that is threatening the lives of your family and community. This is what our boys are struggling with. And all we can do is pray and do our best to advocate for them by contacting anyone who might be able to help. Imagine…You have been away for a really long time and you finally are visiting your family – your parents, siblings, cousins, etc. Now, where they live, there have been some wildfires around, but nothing too close to where they are, and there have been wildfires around before, so it seems safe enough. And some members of your family can’t fly, so you must visit them where they are. You go and you are having a great time but the wildfires are getting worse, and closer to where you are. You think the fire people will come and put it out and we will all be okay. But the fire gets bigger and closer and now you think geez, I need to get my family out of here. At the same time, friends and relatives start showing up because their homes have been consumed by the fire, so you are trying to help everyone and make sure they have food and a place to sleep and figure out how to get all these folks to someplace safe. You have a ticket to fly out, but no one else does and there are no more tickets for any flights because so many people are trying to escape. Your parents and siblings, neighbors, friends, cousins, are all there with no way to get away from the fires. The fires have surrounded the area except for one road, but that road is closed. So you keep trying to find a way to keep your family safe. You know you are going to have to leave with that ticket you have but what is going to happen to your family? How can you help them? You must do something. If your family and friends and neighbors all die in this fire, how are you going to live with that? Of course, if you are also dead, you can’t ever help anyone. This is an impossible situation! You need a miracle.  Isa and Sima in Kabul  Roshan and Shegufa in Kabul My letter: While I appreciate President Biden’s intention to end the war in Afghanistan, the way that he is doing it is creating a horrific humanitarian crisis. The Taliban are brutally murdering and torturing non-Taliban. Interpreters and their families, Afghan women, and Hazara people are in grave danger. Right now, two of my foster boys who recently got their US citizenship are in Kabul, desperately trying to find some way to get their families to safety. Unfortunately, there are no good options. But staying there is almost certainly a death sentence. The USA needs to provide some safe passage for these people to escape to a refugee camp or something. UNHCR is set up to accept refugees in Iran, but the borders are controlled by the Taliban, so that isn’t an option. There is one potential route to Pakistan that isn’t completely controlled by the Taliban yet, but Pakistan has closed its border and is not allowing the people in. Flying out of there is also not an option for most people as it is costly and requires passports, which most people do not have. And if they could get a flight, where would they go? Many have relatives around the world but going to stay with them would require all sorts of documentation to get visas, which is terribly difficult in the best of times, and definitely not feasible at this time. I don’t know what the USA can do, but it must do something. We cannot just walk out and allow hundreds of thousands of people to be brutally slaughtered behind us. We must do something – provide air support to the government at least so that people can get out of the country. Do not allow the Taliban to completely take over the country, which is exactly what is happening. My children and their families are surrounded by danger with no practical means of escape. If there is anything you can do, please help them and all the others who are in the same predicament. Thank you. Virginia EllenYou can contact: your US Senators: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm US Representative: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative the President and Vice President: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ UNHCR: https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/contact-form.html the UN: https://www.un.org/en/contact-us-0 the State Department: https://register.state.gov/contactus/contactusform the DOD (scroll to the bottom of the page): https://www.defense.gov/Contact/ |
Brief Update Summer
https://mailchi.mp/41c2ab660a77/quick-update-on-afghanistan