Help US-Allied Afghan Family Survive

My name is Karim. I'm a former Marine and a combat veteran from the war in Afghanistan. I'm raising money for the Safi family, whom I was privileged to learn about from their father, Mohammad.

A Father's Dream

Mohammad was a local shopkeeper at one of the U.S. bases I visited during my tour in Afghanistan in 2012. Though I only met him once due to the province-hopping nature of my mission in the war there, I was struck by how much he shared about his love for his large family and his hopes for them to migrate to the United States once the war was over.

Mohammad dreamed of a life where his daughters could receive the same quality education as his sons, without the looming threat of Taliban fighters who camped in the ridgelines on the mountains beyond his town. He had already lost a son, murdered by the Taliban for the family's work alongside U.S. forces, but he told me he trusted in the end his family would be safer for his allegiance to the most powerful military force in the world. The U.S. had, after all, promised him that they would take care of him once all of this was over.

Abandoning Our Allies

Amid the United States' chaotic retreat from Afghanistan in 2021, I was trying from afar to help evacuate Afghan families who had supported me and my American friends during our invasion. It was during these efforts that I received a call from Mohammad's son, who explained to me they were desperately trying to flee to safety, but had nowhere else to turn.

A fumbling wartime bureaucracy had been hastily scratched together, with Afghan allies sacrificing their lives to board their families on a tiny number of military flights leaving the country forever. To board, they bizarrely had to be vetted by both the Taliban and the Marines. If one could through no small miracle survive the Taliban's vetting, then the contradictory goals and criteria set by the Marines would deny them, leaving throngs of asylum-eligible Afghans stranded in the streets of Kabul.

Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, Mohammad's family was one of such families. He was not rich enough to afford a private route out of the country, nor did he neatly fit into any of the myriad Afghan cohorts whose backstories were sensational enough to warrant their salvation at the hands of charities that only wanted ethnic minorities, single mothers, educators, doctors, etc. He was just a poor shopkeeper with a family too large to easily transport. Instead, like countless other Afghans in a similar circumstance, we abandoned him.

Helping Mohammad

Since my failure to evacuate Mohammad's family in August 2021, my family has been sending 30,000 Afghani (currently equivalent to $400 USD) to Mohammad's family every month. This has enabled them to pay their rent, pay for food, and afford the medical expenses for an ailing Mohammad. I have communicated primarily with his son, a bright young man who speaks English and has been teaching it to his younger siblings for the past few years.

But I want more for them than to continually depend on my monthly wire of survival expenses. Mohammad's medical issues prevent him from being able to work, but his son desires to continue in his father's footsteps by opening a shop and using the proceeds to help his and other families like his survive.

Our Goal

With your support, I believe we can help him achieve this new dream, patched together in the wake of our national abandonment of our Afghan allies. That's why I'm hoping to raise enough money to support Mohammad's family for 18 months, which will give them time to work on rebuilding their family business during this time. Every dollar up to $7,500 will go to Mohammad's family, with any remaining amount going to help support Afghan refugee families here in the Portland area who we know by name and have helped since their arrival back in 2021.

Please support us in any way you can, whether it be with a few dollars or a share.

Thank you,

Karim