I’m angry, sad, scared and wracked with survivor’s guilt for feeling safe in my home in San Francisco, thousands of miles from the devastating turmoil my Afghan sisters are living through. I’m channeling my frustration and anger into action.
On Tuesday, Elisa Massenzio ( a graphic designer) and I will be launching a grassroots social media campaign, #ActionforAfghans to elevate the voices of Afghan people by mobilizing Afghans in the diaspora and white, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ allies to take action.
We have created beautiful, positive, and inspiring posts (such as the one above) which you can share on your social media. We need your help!
Call to action:
If you are an active Instagram, Facebook and Twitter user and you want to help us get the word out with the #ActionforAfghans social media campaign, please email actionforafghans@gmail.com and we’ll share the details of the campaign with you.
Some news from Afghanistan…
The director of the schools I co-founded in Ghazni, over 15 years ago, is hiding in Kabul while waiting for a visa to leave Afghanistan. The Taliban have targeted her for educating girls. She reports that all the windows of our schools were shattered by the bullets that left pockmarks on the walls of our classrooms. The Taliban ransacked the classes, tore down posters of Newton, Einstein, and Vicenna (Ibn Sina) and confiscated all the English books. They left their own booklets instead. Our teachers showed up today, but the students did not. They are afraid.
At Afghan Friends Network we continue to raise funds to help the director of our schools get out of Afghanistan, help our teachers with the high prices of food, and we hope to restore the classrooms so our students can safely return back to school. Donations can be made on the Afghan Friends Network website. Your donations are tax-deductible.
The recent images of Afghans clinging to a moving jet, female protestors in Kabul shouting “My dreams died”, and a baby passed over a wired fence to a U.S. Marine are heartbreaking.
Thank you for your messages and kind words of support. I look forward to hearing from you.