Update on Earthquake Relief Efforts in Afghanistan
Thanks to your generous support, our volunteer team in Afghanistan was able to distribute much-needed aid to families affected by the recent earthquake. This week, we reached 26 families, each receiving assistance to help them meet urgent needs during this incredibly difficult time.
The only operational costs incurred were $217, which covered transportation and printing materials. All other efforts were carried out by our dedicated volunteers, who gave their time and energy to ensure the aid reached those who needed it most.
Due to restrictions imposed by local authorities and cultural sensitivities, we were unable to take many photos—especially as many women and girls are currently sheltering in open farmland without proper cover. Our team described the situation as dire: families are still searching for loved ones using only basic tools, and the only school in the area, with a few intact rooms, is now serving as a temporary refuge for women and children.
We remain committed to supporting these communities and ask for your continued help in this humanitarian effort. Your contributions make a real difference.
Thousands Dead, Homes Destroyed — SCM Mobilizes Emergency Aid for Survivors
A devastating earthquake struck the remote Kunar province of Afghanistan—a mountainous region northwest of Jalalabad—on September 2nd, registering a magnitude of 6.0. Aftershocks have occurred, some measuring, some measuring up to 5.5, shaking the same area. Many homes in this region are built from mud brick, making them especially vulnerable to collapse during seismic events.
Current reports estimate that over 1,400 people have been killed, though the number is likely closer to 2,000. More than 4,000 individuals have been injured, and approximately 7,000 homes have been completely destroyed.
SCM is coordinating with trusted partners on the ground to deliver emergency aid. Immediate needs include medical supplies, mobile clinics, clean water, and food. While SCM has previously supported vulnerable Afghan populations seeking safety, this earthquake presents an entirely new and urgent crisis.
International support remains limited, so we are working with organizations capable of operating in the region to ensure families receive the care they need. We are also committed to supporting children who have been orphaned by this disaster.
If you are able to help, please consider donating. Be sure to write “Afghanistan” in the memo line of your contribution. We will continue to keep you updated on the evolving needs and how your support is making a difference.
Urgent Help Needed for Afghan Refugee Family. They Have No Resettlement Agency/No Financial Support
Emily Hansen has been a dedicated supporter of SCM Medical Missions since 2016. She has assisted numerous Syrian refugee families as they settled into new lives in the Seattle and Spokane areas. In late 2021, her focus shifted to Afghan refugees, and through her volunteer work at SCM’s church store, she has supported over 4,000 newly arrived Afghans. Emily has personally helped hundreds of families obtain essential household and baby items, and she considers many of these individuals her friends.
Most of the families she has worked with have arrived under the care of resettlement agencies, giving them access to critical resources such as temporary financial assistance, case management, food support, medical care, and work authorizations. While the transition becomes more difficult after the 90-day resettlement support period ends, families with refugee status are generally able to work toward self-sufficiency.
Emily is now seeking urgent assistance for one of the most vulnerable Afghan families she has encountered. The family includes two parents and their three young children—a 7-year-old daughter, a 4-year-old son, and an 11-month-old baby boy. The father was formerly employed as a journalist by an American company in Kabul. Due to increasing pressure and danger, the employer helped the family flee Afghanistan. After spending time in Pakistan, they arrived in Seattle in March.
Unlike most Afghan refugee families Emily has assisted, this family arrived without the backing of a resettlement agency or any financial support. The father currently cannot work; although his former employer obtained a U.S. work permit for him, it is limited to employment with that same company, which has no available positions—remote or local—in Seattle. Additionally, the permit is temporary and will expire in six months, at which point the family would be forced to leave the U.S.
Fortunately, an American colleague of the father has provided the family with a below-market rental home in Seattle’s Ravenna neighborhood. However, they have no means to pay rent and are entirely dependent on the generosity of others to survive.
The family’s only long-term hope is to gain asylum. A petition has already been submitted by the former employer, but a favorable decision could take months. In the meantime, Emily is asking for support on their behalf. Assistance could include rent contributions (landlord contact information available upon request), grocery store gift cards (QFC or Safeway), and diapers (currently size 4, with delivery information available for Amazon, Target, or other retailers). An Amazon list is coming soon and will be posted when it is available.
For those in the Seattle area, especially near Ravenna, the father is willing and eager to perform yard work or other casual labor. He is intelligent, hardworking, fluent in English, and deeply motivated to provide for his young family and build a secure life in the United States.
Please contact us if you are able to help this family with needed supplies, or donate to their fund by clicking button below.
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.
As 2022 comes to a close, we want to thank everyone who has been a part of SCM Medical Missions’ many achievements this year. We have had so many volunteers help with resettled refugees, here in the Seattle area and across Washington state, and also overseas. People have helped in our clothing banks set up for the incoming Afghan refugees, delivered supplies from Seattle to Spokane, helped families with paperwork and job searches, and even obtaining a vehicle. We have a new representative for our Lebanon work who travels between Seattle and Beirut several times a year to organize distributions, take care of the incoming containers and warehouse, and set up our new clinics.
Thank you!
Resettlement
In October we celebrated some of the first Syrian refugees that arrived here over six years ago, becoming US citizens. It was a great event, and we got to hear from some of them about their experiences when they first arrived and what it has been like to be a refugee and come to a new country. We also had presentations by the director of the state’s refugee office, a member of another NGO working with refugees, and the Deputy Mayor of Bothell, a Muslim-American who immigrated to the US with his family as a child from.
We have helped get newly arrived Syrian families set up in their new apartments in Spokane. The Amazon wish lists we have put together for them have been a big help as it allows items to be shipped directly to the family in Spokane. A larger NGO helps the refugees get an apartment and some furniture, but so many household items are left to the family to get, basic things like bedding, towels, dishes and cooking utensils and pots and pans, cleaning supplies. By setting up the Amazon lists, we help them save whatever money they may have, which is usually very little, for things like future rent after the three months provided by the resettlement agency runs out, or utility bills. You have even helped them with groceries and warm winter coats.
Earlier in 2022 we were collecting clothing, bicycles, laptops, hygiene supplies, and sewing machines for the resettled Afghan refugees in the Seattle/Renton area, and you came through for us with your donations and volunteering at the refugee service center where the local refugees in need come come and pick up the clothing and other items they needed. It was a huge success, serving up to 160 refugees each time it was opened. We had bicycle donations from individuals and groups like Holy Spokes and businesses like Harvey’s Bicycles. Sewing machines were brought in to give to the families, along with sewing supplies and tools.
LGBTQ
We have also been assisting LGBTQ community members and Gender Rights Activists get out of Afghanistan and to safety. In Afghanistan they are now subject to execution, and in some of the most horrific ways. They travel via Pakistan before continuing on to either the US or Canada. We are supporting them while they wait in Pakistan to continue their journey, and then there are sponsors we are working with in Canada who will help them locally. In Canada the refugees will receive help for a year from the government, rather than just three months, but they often still need additional assistance for things other than rent and food. The sponsors also help them with paperwork, familiarizing them with their new city, and in general helping them feel welcome and connected to the community. Most of all, they help them discover their freedom to be who they want to be and love who they want to love.
Lebanon
SCM now has two warehouses in the Middle East. One is in Jordan that we have had for many years, and the other one is in Lebanon that was just opened this year. We had shipped several containers to Lebanon during the pandemic, and due to a number of reasons, they were held up in customs for over a year. The shipping costs also rose during the pandemic. A 40-foot container once cost $2500 to send to Lebanon but the price has gone over $7000. We thank you for the continued support as we absorbed these increased costs to sending aid to the people of Lebanon.
One way we have been able to continue to get aid to Lebanon has been to send suitcases filled with needed items such as medications, solar lanterns, and other small items with people traveling to the region. The suitcases are then handed off to our local coordinators who get them to the warehouse and also see to their distribution. Cash donations are also sent to purchase food and medicines locally and distribute to the people in need.
Another impact of the pandemic was not being able to conduct medical missions to Jordan or other areas where we had previously been working. Now that travel is much less restricted, we will be organizing a mission to Lebanon in early 2023 and opening a new women and children’s clinic there alongside our new dental clinic. We have rented a 2500 square-foot space and it will be furnished with a dental suite donated by a dentist here in Seattle along with other medical supplies and equipment sent in our containers from Seattle. Without these donations we would not be able to make this work.
Lebanon distributions
Plans for 2023
In 2023 we will continue to help the resettled refugees in Washington. As they arrive, SCM is notified that there is a new family and we will continue to create Amazon lists and provide other assistance to take up any shortfall they may be facing.
SCM is putting a renewed focus on the LGBTQ refugees and Gender Rights Activists, helping them get to safety. We are working with a group of sponsors that are helping the Afghan LGBTQ refugees make their was through Pakistan and other neighboring countries to get to Canada or the US. We will continue to help with expenses for daily living as well as the costs of visas and other paperwork.
One of our biggest projects for 2023 will be to maintain the clinics in Lebanon. After the explosion at the Port of Beirut and the economic collapse in the country, so many people are still unable to access primary medical and dental care. Our clinic will be for those in need and we will try to help as many people as we can. Be sure to watch for the medical mission announcements and please donate to help the people of Lebanon with our new clinics.
To keep the medical and dental clinics staffed and operating we estimate the cost will be about $5000 per month. Once they are open, we will have regular medical and dental missions there where volunteer doctors, dentists, and nurses can come and help out for a week or so. We need to continue to raise funds for the clinic to ensure that the people in need there will have access and can get general care.
All of us at SCM in Seattle, Jordan, and Lebanon wish you and your loved ones a joyous holiday season and prosperous new year and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support!
