Help refugees fleeing from Afghanistan set up their lives in New Zealand

Over the past couple of weeks, my sister and I have been working with an amazing group of Kiwis to get visas and evacuate an extremely high-risk family from Afghanistan. It has been horrific to witness first-hand what they’ve been through to get here to our beautiful country.

We’re now turning our attention to organising support for them and other families coming to New Zealand. There are over 300 Afghan refugees arriving here.

They have all fled with literally nothing but the clothes on their backs, and will have to start again, setting up homes for themselves and their children from scratch.

We need your help now to provide immediate resettlement support – basic necessities to set up their homes; trauma and mental health services; and activities to help them get settled into communities.

The family we helped escape were top professionals in Afghanistan. Within a week their lives were completely turned upside down, losing absolutely everything - like many others. In the sixteen-hour mission to get them from hiding onto the safety of the airport tarmac, the only clothes they had were ripped, and covered in sewage as one of their routes to escape was crossing a large sewerage canal.

As well as leaving behind everything they had, many arriving will be emotionally traumatised and exhausted. Experts say that the residual trauma among those fleeing Taliban-controlled Afghanistan will be amongst the highest levels of any groups ever resettled.

We have been involved with the Afghan community on a personal level for several years and at this time we are working side-by-side with the community and in particular, the refugee support the New Settlers Family and Community Trust (NFACT).

NFACT is one of the only organisations in New Zealand providing full wrap-around support for refugees. Their founder and manager, Dr Fahima Saeid, is a leader in the Afghan community, and has worked in refugee resettlement for the past 20 years since she came here herself as a refugee. Her husband, Dr Arif Saeid, is the President of the New Zealand Refugee Council. We have had the pleasure of working alongside Fahima for many years and you can learn more about her and NFACT here: https://www.nfact.co.nz

It is an organisation run by experienced, qualified refugees, for refugees.

The money that we raise will fund NFACT to help these refugees fleeing the horrors in Afghanistan to begin their lives here by:

1. Providing practical resettlement support wherever needed, including basic necessities for those arriving to start their new lives here.

2. Supporting the emotional well-being of the new arrivals, putting extensive preventative and early intervention measures in place to work through any trauma they have. It will also enable NFACT to provide a space for qualified people who speak their language and understand their culture to support them.

3. Providing these families with opportunities to explore New Zealand and have some fun experiences to get them settled in and connecting with the land and tangata whenua – an often-overlooked element of resettlement.

The temporary visas that these Afghan refugees have been granted restrict them from working for several months, so they will have limited access to income while resettling.

We need your support to ensure they are able to rebuild their lives after the horrific traumas and life-changing tragedies they have experienced. While we may never be able to understand the depths of their pain, we can all do our part to lessen the burdens they’ve shouldered when they arrive on our shores.