It’s been almost two weeks since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, and for many Afghans, the situation is precarious.
On Thursday, more than a dozen people were killed in explosions outside the airport in Kabul, where throngs of people are scrambling to get to planes and evacuate. A US official said the attack was “definitely believed” to have been carried out by ISIS, whose affiliate in Afghanistan grew out of disaffected Taliban members who hold an even more extreme view of Islam.
Right now, many Americans — and Afghans who helped the US, and many others — are stranded in Afghanistan. The US and other countries have been working to get people evacuated from Afghanistan where the situation is changing rapidly, by the Aug. 31 deadline for US troop withdrawal.
Many groups around the globe are also working around the clock to help people get out of the country.
The World has compiled a list of resources/organizations that need volunteers and financial support in the effort to evacuate and resettle people and respond to urgent needs on the ground in Afghanistan.
Evacuation and resettlement
- The Aid for Afghans app has a crowdsourced directory of over 100 resources for Afghans, refugees and allies.
- The Afghan Coalition of the San Francisco Bay Area, one of the largest Afghan American groups in the United States, is serving new arrivals to the US from Afghanistan.
- The city of Fremont, California, home to one of the largest Afghan communities in the country, established a fund through the Human Services Department specifically for direct assistance to Afghan refugees arriving in Fremont, Newark and Union City.
- Human Rights First needs lawyers to help provide pro bono legal assistance to Afghan evacuees.
- The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service needs volunteers to support incoming Afghan allies and Special Immigrant Visa holders who are being evacuated to the United States to help with airport pick-ups, apartment set-ups, meals and more.
- Ascend, a nonprofit organization working in Afghanistan to empower young women through mountaineering is raising money to help evacuate girls in the country and resettle them.
- The University of California Berkeley’s Human Rights Center has created the Afghanistan “Scholars at Risk Fund” to help journalists, lawyers and other academics — especially women — flee the country.
- The Global Investigative Journalism Network and the International Journalists’ Network have resources for journalists and others at risk.
Security and privacy online
- Facebook also has a one-click tool for people in Afghanistan to lock down their Facebook accounts. Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of security policy, has ongoing tips via Twitter, for Afghans and anyone connected to people in Afghanistan.
On-the-ground help in Afghanistan
- The International Rescue Committee is trying to raise $10 million “to deliver lifesaving aid in areas of conflict, as well as to provide emergency cash assistance and protection services for internally displaced people in Kabul.”
- The Afghan Journalists Safety Committee that supports press freedom in Afghanistan is raising money to help local journalists and their families with basic needs including shelter, clothes, blankets and to keep media outlets still working going.
- The Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund provides funding to organizations at the front lines of response.
- Emergency is a nongovernmental organization that provides health care in Afghanistan. The NGO runs a network of war surgery hospitals and First Aid Posts across Afghanistan.
- The International Medical Corps has been in Afghanistan since 1984, providing emergency and primary health care, along with training to build skills and resilience. It’s taking donations.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.