Equal Rights for women and girls was blossoming in Afghanistan until it came to an abrupt end when the Taliban marched into Kabul. Many of the women we are helping were the leading female gender equality activists of Afghanistan. Because of their previous activism they and their families are targets of the Taliban. We have many who are in hiding in Afghanistan or are illegal in Pakistan.
We financially support them for housing, food and life’s essentials. We pay large sums of money to help them get passports, visas and for transporting them to a third country. Once their visas have expired, we must hide them from the police so that they are not arrested and deported. Deportation for some could lead to torture and execution.
Here are just a few examples of the threat these activists are facing:
The Taliban discovered the hiding place of one our activists and came to her house. Thankfully she wasn’t there. They shot and killed her sister.
The 70-year-old matriarch of one of our families of 10 that used to run schools for girls in Afghanistan lost her 3 sons and a daughter in law to the Taliban.
A mother of another of our activists was arrested and tortured by the Taliban. We were able to finally send bribe money to gain her release.
Once we get them to a 3rd country, we work very hard to entice a western democracy to accept them.
The USA prioritizes their huge backlog of previous employees over other minorities. To apply for resettlement to the USA you must first apply to the UNHCR and receive refugee status before the Americans will begin processing them. This process can take several years. We do not believe most of our refugee friends would be able to survive without being deported.
We have assisted in the resettlement of dozens of people recently to Canada with the help of IRCC, Rainbow Refugee and Rainbow Railroad. Canada does not require preapproval by the UNHCR and is very welcoming to refugees. If you are Canadian and want to be a sponsor or have Canadian friends who might be interested in being sponsors, we would love to talk with you. Please contact us.
Each private sponsorship group needs to raise about $14,000 to $18,000 US dollars that goes into an escrow account to help the refugee during their first year in Canada. We do our best to help them raise funds.
SCM needs your help in so many ways to keep doing this work. Please donate today if you can to our New Life Fund, and share this page with whom ever you can.
