Support our Afghan Staff

 Dear Friend of Sahar,

Thanks to your generous gifts and pledges, we have raised close to $400,000. All raised funds

are allocated toward the evacuation efforts of our staff from Afghanistan. Our goal is to raise

$425,000; allocating $2,500 per person. Thanks to your overwhelmingly generous support, we

have the capacity to fully focus on the operational challenges of helping our team to safety.

We are tirelessly working to evacuate the staff and their families but progress is slow. As you

may have read, flights out of Mazar-i-Sharif were grounded for weeks creating a backlog that is

just now easing. We are hopeful that one of the next rounds of charter flights will include our

staff. The flight arrangements must be approved by the Afghan, US and destination country

authorities, so it is a complicated process. The exit rules and document requirements are

changing daily, with very little advance information being shared due to security concerns.

Despite these obstacles, we remain hopeful.

It is possible that the evacuation flights will be underwritten by an anonymous donor. This would

allow us to use the evacuation funds to temporarily support the basic needs of the families in a

third country such as shelter, food, and clothing. If the charter flight evacuation is not

successful, then the funds will be used to help underwrite the travel expenses of families who

decide to leave Afghanistan on their own. Our goal is to support them for as long as it is

realistically feasible.

Our staff and their immediate family members (spouse and children) qualify for a P-2 refugee

visa which requires that they leave Afghanistan and stay in a third country while the visa

application is processed. The US State Department is advising that processing could take as

long as 18-24 months. While this is an onerous requirement, once they arrive in the US they

qualify for the US refugee resettlement program, which gives them benefits such as work

permits, housing, healthcare, and a one year waiting period for a green card, and a path to

citizenship.

By rule, our staff’s parents and siblings do not qualify for a P-2 visa and will need to apply for

Humanitarian Parole, an entry visa that does not give them refugee status nor any benefits

longer than 90 days. In order to remain in the US for longer than a year, they must apply for

asylum. This visa is the only option for our staff members who are single to bring their families

with them to the United States.

This is a long and difficult process, and our spirits are lifted by the outpouring of support from

our communities. We will update you as we learn more. Thank you again for your generous

support of our staff and their families who placed themselves at grave risk to make our work

possible.

Sincerely,

Catherine Gelband, Board President

Malahat Mazaher, Executive Director