Donate for the Education of Mansour

Mansour and his friends Erfan and Masood contacted International Orphan Care (IOC) in 2020. They wanted to help Afghan orphans and the children of poor Afghan families. I and others who met them were impressed with their knowledge and passion for helping others less fortunate than themselves.

At the time of our first meeting, Mansour was seventeen. Erfan and Masood were older. Despite his youth, it soon became clear Mansour was the leader of the three friends. Each of the three friends is very talented and motivated. Mansour has something special, a curiosity about what technology, specifically coding and visual images, can do to help and influence people.

Mansour is a high-achieving student in his school. But most of what he knows about coding and photographic and video imagery he learned because of his initiative outside the classroom.

Each of the three friends had applied to universities in the US. They had been accepted for admission subject to having sufficient funds to pay tuition and living costs. Scholarships were offered for a portion of the costs. The three young friends and their families were expected to provide the balance.

In the Spring of 2020, COVID-19 came to Afghanistan. The government ordered almost all businesses, institutions, and schools to close. Only hospitals and medical clinics, police and security services, and food markets were allowed to remain open.

Afghans that depended on earnings from their daily labor were unemployed and had no funds to pay for food and other essentials.

The families of the three friends were not able to pay the balance of the tuition and living expenses. The COVID-19 shutdown impacted IOC and IOC operations were curtailed. IOC and a group of organizations known as Afghan COVID-19 Relief decided to shift activities to providing food to families without a source of income to purchase food. Almost all fundraising was committed to food to feed hungry families.

Mansour, Erfan and Masood decided to delay their plans to study in the US.

Mansour continued with his initiative to seek opportunities outside of the classroom. He learned that Stanford University offered an online coding class. He applied and was accepted as a Volunteer Section Leader to lead a group of students. Mansour also learned that Google offered online courses through Coursera.org.

In the Spring of 2021, we were hopeful that controlling COVID would no longer require businesses and schools to be closed. IOC expected to return to normal operations. The three friends had resubmitted their applications to universities in the US.

IOC and the Afghan COVID-19 Relief group of organizations decided to form a separate organization Afghanistan Relief Alliance. ARA would be activated to respond to disasters like pandemics, earthquakes, floods, droughts and other natural disasters.

When ARA was formed, it was not expected that the greatest disaster for the people of Afghanistan to experience would not be a natural disaster.

In the Summer of 2021, the US announced it was leaving Afghanistan. The NATO countries, other countries, UN agencies, international institutions, and international non-governmental agencies announced they were also leaving. The Taliban took control of the government. The US imposed financial sanctions on the Taliban, and impounded the financial assets of the government of Afghanistan.

The economy of Afghanistan collapsed, and the banking system was on the brink of failure. Nearly everyone became unemployed, and many of those employed have not been paid.

ARA began a fundraising campaign and has purchased food for distribution to families with the greatest need. Mansour has been helping ARA and IOC in Mazar-e Sharif and other provinces in Northern Afghanistan.

IOC prefers to help Afghans attend school and learn skills that will allow them to support themselves and their families and not become dependent on the generosity of others. We do the food distributions because the current situation is so desperate.

We want to put a significant investment into the education of Mansour because we know that in the future, Mansour will contribute to society many times over the investment we make today.