Help Afghan refugee family settle in America

My name is Stephanie Foo, the author of What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Complex Trauma, and a former journalist at This American Life. I am fundraising for the family of Ali, an Afghan refugee.

Ali worked as a radio DJ employed by the US, broadcasting messages and interviews to counter the Taliban. These DJs hosted music and talk shows, but also connected rural Afghans with their government leaders, and warned them of ongoing Taliban operations.

This work was public, making the DJs easy and valuable targets. When the Taliban took over in 2021, Ali and his former coworkers went into hiding. The Taliban have imprisoned, tortured, and killed many who worked with the former government. They hid in the mountains or in basements, often struggling for food and firewood, while they applied for visas to sneak out of the country.

Ali taught schoolchildren at a Pakistani refugee camp until the Taliban infiltrated it and he had to hide again. Last month, he finally passed his last security checks and received a Special Immigration Visa for Afghans who worked against the Taliban.

Ali, his young children and his wife are finally safe, and they're trying to avoid poverty in the US and join the working class. They were placed in Arizona, where they don't know anyone but have found some jobs available at the airport. He's trying to buy a used car so that he can commute to work, get his feet under him, and eventually move to Maryland where his cousin lives.

He needs your help to get there. The car and the move will cost about $10,000. Any leftover funds will go to other former DJs who are in similar situations, trying to settle into a new and very different country.

Here's Ali with another former DJ, relieved after passing his visa interview.