Supporting Bilal Ahmadi and his family

Background

Since leaving Armidale, Bilal has experienced a turbulent and, at times, horrific return to his home town of Kabul. We would encourage everyone to read Tim Hughes’ story in TAS Binghi Magazine  (https://www.as.edu.au/content/uploads/2022/01/Binghi-195-Web-Copy.pdf Page 18-19) and watch the video posted on this page to get the full impact of his story.

 

A small group of people have supported Bilal and his family while in Afghanistan. The support has been more focussed on the day to day existence rather than planning anything for a very uncertain future. Thanks to Bilal’s extraordinary feats, his family is safe in Germany but still face an uncertain future albeit completely different in nature.

 

Goal

As members of the TAS and Armidale community, we have a special opportunity to support Bilal and the Ahmadi family to gain a more definitive and secure future. When they left the Kabul madness, all they could take with them were three backpacks of personal belongings, of which they lost one in transit, to start their new life.

 

Bilal has said that he has a clear pathway available to him in the USA due to his work with the US Army but does not want to leave his family until they are secure in Germany. This means education, medical support, housing and employment options which will take money that they do not have.

 

This GoFundMe page is designed to help Bilal support his family to find and establish the better future that they deserve. Bilal’s only focus for the recent past has been how to get his family safely out of war-torn Afghanistan and we would like to think, that we as his friends and extended family, would only be too keen help him achieve a new future for his family.

 

Please note:

Bilal does not have a functioning bank account in Germany until his refugee status has been confirmed, which he believes will occur in the first half of 2022. He has attended his immigration interviews and is confident that he and his family will be granted visas but he is not permitted to hold a bank account. Until he can establish a viable bank account, all finances raised with the GoFundMe page will go into an Australian bank account in the names of Ralph Hunt and Mark Taylor. We will transfer funds to Bilal, using Western Union, (which we have done on many occasions in the past) until he has a bank account established. When he does, we will transfer any funds from the existing account directly to his new account.

 

Again, Bilal and his family will be eternally grateful and appreciative for any donation that you care to make to this worthy cause, and we know that every dollar will be put to good use. Please give generously, as we thoroughly believe that with our help, the Ahmadis will look forward to a new and brighter future in their secure and safe new country.

 

Regards

 

Mark Taylor & Ralph Hunt.