Dr. Laura Tedesco meeting Afghan elders
I’m really excited to share my interview with Dr. Laura Tedesco, the Cultural Heritage Program Manager for The State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs and the star of the Monuments Woman Podcast, about her extraordinary journey to preserve Afghanistan’s cultural heritage sites.
As you can imagine, when an Afghan catches up with an old friend that conversation is not going to be short so we cut the interview into two parts.
Read More
#LetAfghanGirlsLearn
August 15th is the one-year anniversary of the collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban takeover. It has been heart-wrenching to watch the Taliban roll back all women’s basic human rights — to be educated, to earn a living, to leave their homes freely and be an active part of their community.
Read More
Zan, her son and husban
In this current state of the world of instability, unpredictability, and war, I have some great news to share.
Zan’s husband, daughter and son
In August I wrote a post about my friend Zan (not her real name) an Afghan educator and a women’s rights leader who had to leave Afghanistan after the Taliban raided her home in rural Afghanistan, while she was hiding in Kabul. She escaped by traveling overland from Kabul to Pakistan and then flew to Turkey. Her departure was sudden and costly so she had to leave her husband and 6 children behind.
After six months of anguish and uncertainty, yesterday, her husband and two children reunited with her in Ankara, Turkey. Without your generous support, this would have never happened.
Take joy Zan’s smile as she sits next to her youngest son (14-years-old) who she missed immensely. Often times when we spoke on WhatsApp, she explained that her heart ached for her children and that she would give anything to be reunited with them.
Unfortunately, I have to hide their faces in these photos because Zan’s three adult children are still in Pakistan waiting for a Turkish visa and her married daughter is still in Kabul. I don’t want to put them at risk.
While we fretted and worried about Zan’s husband and children’s safety, John Bortner, the Chair of the Board of Directors of Afghan Friends Network, and I worked together to push forward Zan’s family’s political asylum case which basically was not going anywhere until two dear friends at the State Department, who had met Zan while they worked in Afghanistan, stepped in to help us.
Now, Zan has an asylum case number and is in the USCIS system for a priority 2 visa to the United States. The asylum process will take anywhere from 16 months to 2 years. We hope that she will one day be able to move to the United States with her family.
Once again, thank you for your generous donations to our fundraising effort. We met our goal of $56,000 in two weeks and since used the funds to help Zan’s family pay for inflated visa processing fees and flight costs. I was heartened and moved by the show of support from the Afghan Friends Network community, friends, colleagues, and my meditation community.
Yes, their family has a long way to go before settling into a new home, but at least they will be together and at the end of the day, there is nothing more important than family.
Additionally, despite her own anguish and sadness, Zan has been coordinating forces on the ground in Afghanistan to provide help to the rural community where we worked together in the past 17 years. With Zan’s help, we’ve sent funds to the teachers of our schools and handed out bags of flour and a large can of oil to 132 needy families. We are now getting ready to do another flour and oil distribution in the next 2 weeks and then again, around Nowroz, the Afghan New Year, at the end of March.
If you would like to help with this food distribution effort, your donations are welcome. It costs around $46 for a large sack of flour and a large can of oil. Any amount of donation is welcome.
Thank you for your inquiries about Zan and your continued help with our work.
