Name: Anis Gul Rezaei

Profile: Hazara refugee from Afghanistan, living in Indonesia.

Advantages: UN-certified, good English skills, volunteer Bahasa and English teacher, educated, experienced computer instructor and handcraft teacher.

Risk: At risk of being tortured and killed by the Taliban if returned home.

Canadian contact: Stephen Watt

Due to working with an organization in Afghanistan, Anis Gul was threatened by the Taliban. Later on, the Taliban attacked her home, and luckily, they did not find her. She then fled to Indonesia to save her life.

While living in limbo in Indonesia, she has been volunteering as a teacher for her refugee fellows. She hopes to find a group of Canadian friends who can help her start her life again in Canada.

Her Story

Anis Gul was born on April 2, 1991 in Lashkar Gah district in Helmand province in Afghanistan. Her father died while working as a coal miner in Pakistan. During that time, Anis was only 1 year old and her family was living in Helmand province.

The Helmand province is populated by the majority of Pashtuns and the Taliban. Girls there had been prohibited from going to school, but Anis Gul completed her school studies and kept learning English and computer skills with the support of her brother and mother. She also studied Mathematics for 2 years at Helmand University.

The Hazara people of the region have long been targets of persecution and massacres because of their culture, religion, and love for education. Anis Gul’s brother always appreciated and motivated her to continue her studies. Unfortunately, he was killed by the Taliban in 2013 due to working with a foreign organization named Mercy Corps.

Since she did not have any supporter after her brother, she joined the same organization as a computer instructor and handcraft teacher. Also, she started working as a teacher in Mashal Noor School. One day in 2014, Anis Gul received a threatening letter at her door from the Taliban.

“I had no other way to support my family, so I did not take the threatening letter seriously and continued working as normal”

Later on, there were bomb blasts and suicide attacks on her colleagues close to the organization’s office.

Attacked

On the evening of July 14, 2014, the Taliban forcefully entered Anis Gul’s home hoping to arrest and kill her. Fortunately, she with her nephew had gone to a marriage party of one of her colleagues. After the Taliban failed to find her at home, they slapped her mother on the face and told her to consider her daughter dead, and then they left.

“My mother told me on the phone call what had happened. She told me not to return home. I was very scared.”

Leaving Home

Anis Gul spent the night at her friend’s home and then went to Kabul where her mother and two nephews also arrived. She then arranged for a people smuggler with the help of her friend and sent her mother and two nephews to her sister’s home in Ghazni.

In July 2014, she flew to New Delhi, India. From there, she went to Malaysia by plane and then on to Indonesia by boat in August 2014.

Life in Indonesia

On August 19, 2014, she registered herself with the UNHCR and started living in Bogor. Since she did not know Bahasa Indonesia to communicate with the local people, she started learning Bahasa with the help of some locals. Later on, she volunteered at schools to motivate local students to learn the English language. Then, she started her private classes in Bahasa Indonesia and English.

Unfortunately, in 2020, Anis Gul’s mother died due to stress that she had been having about Anis Gul’s loneliness in limbo in Indonesia. The stress had caused her high blood pressure and due to the poor health care system in Afghanistan, Anis Gul lost her mother.

“Losing the only supporter of me and my two nephews caused me to go under a lot of pressure and stress. Being worried about my two nephews in Afghanistan impacted me psychologically and those problems grew with each passing day.”

Anis Gul has been very worried about her two nephews’ future. She joined a paralegal training in Jakarta that was organized by Suaka for a week at the end of 2020. Later on, she started volunteering as a Bahasa teacher for the refugees at JRS (Jersuit Refugee Service) in Cisarua, Bogor.

The Only Option!

As a refugee, Anis Gul has been deprived of her basic human rights. She cannot continue her studies, work, drive and even open a bank account. Her only option to start her life again is to be helped by five Canadian friends who can bring her to Canada where she can reunite with her two nephews one day.

“I dream to continue my studies and build a good life for myself and my nephews in a safe country. I will always be helpful to society and the slogan of my life is humanity”

Since Anis Gul is officially certified as a refugee by the UNHCR – unlike the vast majority of the world’s refugees – she qualifies for Canada’s private sponsorship program.

If you would like to sponsor her – or if you’re just interested in helping to bring her here – please contact her friend Stephen Watt on Facebook.

You can also reach out to Anis Gul directly on Facebook.

Reach out and discover how wonderful it is to privately sponsor a good person to start a new life – with your help – in Canada!

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