07/23/2023
About five years ago my wife Penny volunteered with Doctors Without Borders to help the refugees on the Greek Island of Lesvos. It was very difficult for her to see firsthand the sadness and desperation of people leaving all they had behind to flee war and violence they had no control over. As both a Registered Nurse and a psychotherapist, it was determined she could better assist with the teaching of the children, which she did through the non-profit Refugee Education and Learning International. During that time she befriended a brother and sister who had fled Afghanistan together at the age of 16 and 15, to escape the violence in their country. Najib and Marzia (disguised as a boy, as girls were not allowed in public), traveled primarily on foot and at night from Afghanistan, through Iran, Iraq and Turkey (over 4500 miles) before getting in a small, overcrowded boat to reach the island of Lesvos.
Their mother died during Marzia’s childbirth, and their father was long dead. After never having a mom Penny offered to be their mom, and for the past five years she has visited them annually in Sweden, in the town they were placed in by the United Nations, Pitea, above the arctic circle. Two years ago, I joined me in going to Sweden. While there they gratefully accepted my request to be a dad to them. It has been a blessing to Penny and I beyond measure.
Which brings me to the reason for this email. In August 2021, when the US troops were leaving Afghanistan, we received and urgent WhatsApp message from Marzia. Her cousin and his wife were at the airport in Kabul trying to get on a plane and asked for our assistance. Both being doctors, they feared the treatment that had been receiving from the Taliban and needed to flee. After we contacted our US Senators and Representatives offices, along with a few NGOs, we found we could be of no assistance.
Fast forward to early May this year. After not hearing from or of them in more than a year and a half, the day I was to enter Stanford Medical Center to get a pacemaker, we received a text from them. They needed our phone number and address to give to the border patrol to come across the Tijuana border.
In the 21 months since leaving the airport in Kabul, they traveled to Turkey twice, only to be sent back to Afghanistan. On the third attempt they managed to get a flight out of Iran to Sao Paolo, Brazil. They then had to make their way through Brazil, Columbia and the jungles of Central America to the border at Tijuana, a trip of over 6000 miles.
So, two days later a friend from Refugee Education and Learning International and I drove to Tijuana to bring Soghra and her husband Najib to stay with us. In the ensuing months they have been able to find legal assistance for their asylum claim, get signed up for healthcare (she is pregnant) and have Najib’s teeth worked on, mostly pro bono. The amount of help they have received from sympathetic supporters, Refugee Education and Learning International, Jewish Family Services, and the state, has been heartwarming.
However, due to government rules, they are not permitted to work for 6 months after their arrival. Currently they are taking advantage of their free time to learn English and investigate what they need to do to become practicing physicians in the United States.
Our hope is that by reaching out to friends like you, we can assist them in raising money for their housing and food needs, until such time as they are allowed to work and support themselves. This Go Fund Me account has been set up through the non-profit organization, Refugee Education and Learning International. . REAL International is a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and will graciously act as our fiscal agent, therefore your donation is tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed per IRS regulations. No donation is too small, nor too big. Please join us in assisting this couple succeed in their new life.
When the U.S. left Afghanistan, they were unable to rescue the thousand… Ken Donnelly needs your support for Help Afghan Survivors Find a New Life in America
