Essa Jahani

Name: Mohammad Essa Jahani, his wife Sharifa, and their infant daughter Zohal.

Profile: Hazara refugee from Afghanistan, living in Indonesia.

Advantages: UN-certified, good English skills, experienced volunteer painting teacher, barber and Mechanic.

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

Essa was a child when his family fled to Quetta, Pakistan in search of a safe place. Due to the unsafe situation in Pakistan, his father returned to Afghanistan after about a decade and he got disappeared. Essa was not safe in Pakistan too. Since his brother got killed in a bomb blast in the Hazara area, his mother sent him to Indonesia by boat in 2013.

In 2020, Essa married Sharifa and they now have a daughter named Zohal. As refugees, they are restricted from working, driving and getting a proper education. Essa and Sharifa’s dreams are to give their daughter a life with freedom in a safe country like Canada. They are looking for a group of Canadian friends who can help them start their life again in Canada.

Background

Essa was born on July 12, 1997 in Gizab district in Dai Kundi province in Afghanistan.

The Hazara people of the region have long been targets of persecution and massacres because of their culture, religion, and love for education. Essa’s father had livestock. One day, he sold all of his livestock in the marketplace of the Gizab district. While returning home, he met a Hazara man and they both were on the way to their village when members of the Taliban intercepted them. Suddenly, a fight began between the Hazara man and the Taliban. To save his life, Essa’s father escaped to his home. That night, Essa’s father got informed by a villager that the Taliban had been looking for him because one of their members had been killed by that Hazara man. Essa’s father told the villager that he did not do anything, and that it was the other man who fought with them. The villager suggested his father to leave Afghanistan and save his and his family’s life because the Taliban had been looking for him to seek revenge. His father then moved with his family to Quetta, Pakistan. That time, Essa was around 3 – 4 years old.

Life in Pakistan

Until 2006, Essa studied at Aryana High School in Hazara Town, Quetta. He then left the school and started working in a mechanic workshop in Golimar Chowk, Quetta.

Due to target killings of the Hazaras in that area, Essa used to come home early before the darkness, and he always had to cover his face in order to hide his justification and look. Besides working there, he joined a painting class too. Since the situation in Quetta for Hazara people were getting worse day by day, his father return to Afghanistan in 2012 to see if he could move his family there.

“Unfortunately, he only once called my mother and told her that he had reached Kabul. Since then, no one has heard of him.”

The Unsafe Situation

After his father’s disappearance, Essa lost his brother on February 16, 2013, in a terrorist bomb blast in Hazara Town, Quetta. Since the number of terrorist attacks and target killings of the Hazara people was getting increased, Essa could no longer continue working there. His mother was worried for him since she had already lost her husband and a son. She then decided to send Essa to Indonesia in search of a safe place.

His Way to Indonesia

On May 19, 2013, he traveled from Quetta to Islamabad by road and stayed there for 10 days. On May 29, 2013, he flew to Dubai, and from there to Thailand where he stayed for one day. From there, he went to Malaysia by plane and then on to Indonesia by boat on June 8, 2013. On that same day, he registered himself with the UNHCR office in Jakarta and started living in Bogor where he kept himself busy painting.

Detention Centre

Due to not having the right to work or way to support himself, he went to Makassar Immigration Centre to ask for assistance in April 2014. He remained there for about two months, and he did not have a proper place to sleep at night.

“I used to sleep under the trees, and whenever the rain began, I had to seek a place with a roof.”

On June 6, 2014, he was transferred to a detention centre in Tanjung Pinang where, with the help of IOM, he started a painting class for refugees voluntarily. Also, he did regular exercise and gave free hair-dressing services to other refugees inside the detention centre.

After more than two years of living there, he was freed and transferred to a community house in Batam city.

Life Now

After about two months, his application for his resettlement was submitted by the UNHCR to the Australian Embassy, but he got rejected on May 3, 2017.

“Those were the most challenging days of my life, but I stood back on my feet and resumed my activities like, going to the gym, barbering and teaching my painting class.”

Essa met a Hazara lady named Sharifa through social media and they both got married on February 20, 2020. Since Sharifa was living in Jakarta, Essa was also transferred there. Now, they are blessed with a beautiful daughter whom they named Zohal. Since September 1, 2021, Essa has been a volunteer painting teacher at Hope Learning Centre in Jakarta.

Their Hope

Essa and his wife Sharifa, hope to find kind and generous Canadian friends who can raise funds for their sponsorship and help them resettle in Canada.

As UNHCR refugees, they are eligible for Canada’s private sponsorship program. They need a group of five Canadian friends to support them.

To help support this beautiful family as a sponsor, please contact Stephen Watt on Facebook.

You can also reach out to Essa directly on Facebook – or by email: essa.jahani45@gmail.com – or through WhatsApp: +62 895-6294-10472.

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

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