Operation We Care

Afghanistan Program Support Updates

As of the end of June 2022, donations and our team in the US and Afghanistan facilitated 241 passports, 287 visas, and 298 tickets for at-risk Afghans to evacuate out of Afghanistan. We have continued to provide food, shelter and medical support to over 400 Afghans in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and we collaborated with other programs through donations and support, including additional support during Ramadan for 1,000 people for 30 days.

In addition to safe and secure housing and life support to the group we directly support, we have also helped other aid groups to feed the hungry in Afghanistan and funded medical support for at-risk Afghan women and children. Examples of the medical support provided this quarter include the following:

• Support a three-year-old Afghan girl who required cochlear implant surgery. The child could not hear before the surgery and received a diagnosis, surgery, and recovery in Pakistan. We contributed a significant part of the funding for this cost and has supported the family while they are in Pakistan. The child’s implant will be turned on by the end of August, at which point she will hear for the first time.

• Medical treatment for a pregnant at-risk Afghan woman in our safe house who suffered complications and required emergency care.

• Medical consultation and support for a young boy with muscular dystrophy, including adaptive equipment to assist with mobility, physical therapy, and medical supplies.

In line with our stated goal to work collaboratively with other groups who are providing direct assistance to at-risk Afghans, we supported the following groups with donations to assist them with immediate and life-saving support:

• Afghan Peaks: a donation to feed the poorest of the poor in Bamiyan Province during Ramadan

• GoFundMe Afghanistan Earthquake Relief Fund: donated critical funds to support recovery efforts in sending food, water, medicine, and other essential supplies for victims of a June 22, 2022, 6.1 magnitude earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan, killing 1,000 and injuring over 1,500.

Our Afghan friends and colleagues still require support, so please continue to join us helping them to get to a safe and stable life by donating right now.

Operation We Care Update 9/3/21:

Even though air evacuations have halted, our Afghan friends are still pleading with us to help save them -- so, we are pleading with you -- please continue to join Operation We Care and donate right now. Operation We Care recently brought out 100 at-risk Afghans, some of whom you have seen in our updates, but we have many more who require our help. All of these Afghans have worked with and supported our team, the US Department of Defense, USAID and other American groups.

We have a fully operational team in place with assets inside and outside of Afghanistan. Our team has identified ground evacuation options, available planes and a country that is willing to take our friends and allies out of Afghanistan. However, because we are working through a self-funding organization, we need your help to make this plan possible.

Any donated funds in excess of the cost of immediate evacuation to escape the Taliban (charter planes, buses, and safe house expenses) will be used to cover shelter and resettlement costs of these Taliban-targeted Afghans. Due to security concerns, we can’t share details on where our Afghan colleagues are right now or how we are helping them to get to safety, but we will continue to provide updates as they arrive in safe locations and are no longer at risk.

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Loyal and highly-skilled professional Afghans need your help to be evacuated today. This is a once in a generation moment. You have an opportunity to save a life. 

Our Afghan friends are pleading with us to help save them -- many of whom are incredibly vulnerable women. So, we are pleading with you -- please please join Operation We Care and donate right now.

We are a team, including veterans who served in Afghanistan as PA-C Major-Retired U.S.A.R. and in other critical military and civilian roles. Seeing the serious need to help improve the medical system there, we returned to Afghanistan more than a decade ago to support the communities, including building a medical clinic in Kabul. The medical clinic specialized in providing remote medical services to U.S. nationals, foreign nationals, injured local Afghans, and performing physicals for “special immigrant visa” (SIV) applicants.

On Sunday, the medical clinic was compromised by the Taliban. Because of the clinic’s support of the United States and our allies, the Afghan staff members and their entire families are high-profile targets of the Taliban, and as a result, our Afghan friends and their families are in hiding now. They are all in serious and immediate danger.

Many of our staff members and other employees are women, who if not evacuated quickly, risk being subjected to unspeakable treatment by the Taliban.

We are doing everything we can to prioritize getting these women out first.

The staff members at the medical clinic are like family to us, since we personally hired, trained, and worked side-by-side with them at the medical clinic and throughout other parts of Afghanistan.

We need your help to fund escape flights out of Afghanistan for these specifically targeted, most at risk Afghan nationals with the highest level medical and professional skills, and their families.

We have joined forces with other veterans, former Department of Defense employees, former Afghan refugees, and other organizations to evacuate these individuals, their families, and other non-SIV credentialed, Taliban-targeted Afghans.

We have a fully operational team in place with assets inside and outside of Afghanistan. Our team has identified available planes and a country that is willing to take our refugee friends and allies out of Afghanistan. However, because we are working through a self-funding organization, we need your help to get as many flights in and out of the country as quickly as possible.

Nearly $400,000 has already been donated to this cause by private donors. Any funds raised in excess of those needed to help our friends escape the Taliban will be used to cover shelter and relocation costs of these Taliban-targeted Afghans once they are safely out of the grasp of the Taliban.

Please join Operation We Care: Global Afghan Evacuation, save a life, and donate right now.

Thank you, 

Anna Talerico and Emily King