JOURNALIST AT GREAT RISK
Ghulam Hussain Elham
Profile: A Hazara Journalist from Afghanistan, living in Pakistan with his family.
Advantages: UN-certified, excellent English skills, educated, experienced journalist.
Risk: At risk of being tortured and killed by the Taliban if returned home.
Canadian contact: Stephen Watt
Being a journalist, Ghulam Hussain’s life came to danger. He fled with his family to Pakistan to save their life.
This family does not have any future in Pakistan, nor they can return to Afghanistan. The only way for them to live their life peacefully is to be sponsored to Canada. They need a group of five Canadian friends who can help them start a new life in Canada.
Early Life
Ghulam Hussain Elham was born in 1990 in Nawur distrct of the Ghazni province in Afghanistan. After completing his high school, he graduated from the Radio and Television Department of Journalism and Communication Faculty from Kabul University in 2013.
From 2014 to 2021, Ghulam Hussain worked as a journalist with different media outlets, i.e. RAH-e-FARDA TV, TAMADON TV, and YASH NEWS AGENCY. He also worked as Head of Media Unit at MCIT (Ministry of Communication and IT) from June 2020 till August 2021. https://fb.watch/gzthexlAj-/
In addition, Ghulam Hussain has worked as interviewer for ACSOR Surveys (Afghan Center for Socio-Economic and Opinion Research [https://acsor-surveys.com]) from March 2017 to April 2020.
“This was too risky because the tasks were mostly on asking the people’s opinion on the terroristic groups including the Taliban.”
The Reason He Fled to Pakistan
The Hazara people of the region have long been targets of persecution and massacres because of their culture, religion, and love for education. On the other hand, as a journalist, Ghulam Hussain’s life was in grave danger.
On March 15 and March 18, 2021, two explosions happened on the minibuses of Ghulam Hussain’s colleagues. As a journalist, he never stopped showing the world the Taliban’s activities and violent behavior. His purpose was to inform people through social media, especially through his Facebook account. On March 29, 2021, he uploaded a video of his work duties and goals on the Facebook page of his department. His honest efforts of being a journalist came to the Taliban’s attention and it caused his life to be in danger.
“I believe I was not doing anything wrong. As a journalist, it was my duty to bring facts in front of the world”
Threatened
On April 07, 2021, Ghulam Hussain was at his office when he received some threatening messages from an unknown number through WhatsApp. The person introduced himself as a member of the Haqqani Network, and he threatened Ghulam Hussain to stop media activities.
“He also said that they could find and kill me as soon as they wanted, because their allies were active in different areas of Kabul City where I was living.”
Ghulam Hussain was in grave danger, and he could not share this issue with the responsible and related institutions due to the fear of possible presence of the Taliban infiltrators in the departments. He had no way but to stay away from media activities for at least a period of time.
After the Taliban took over Afghanistan in mid-August 2021, Ghulam Hussain received repeatedly calls from that number. To save his life, he had to change his number, and also his residency several times which was very hard and costly for him and his family. In addition, Ghulam Husain Elham has worked with the Assembly of Afghanistan Hazara Social Associations (AHSA) from January 23, 2020 to April 30, 2022 in the field of documentation and reporting of human rights violations, advocacy for equitable and fair distribution of global aid and empowering member organizations in Kabul and provinces.
The dangers and threats caused by the above activities forced Ghulam Hussain Elham to leave the country and go to Pakistan on June 06, 2022. After some time, since August 2022, as a human rights journalist, he started working with Misaq News - خبرگزاری میثاق – اطلاع رسانی دقیق، سالم و بی طرف (misaqnews.com) - and he has prepared and published dozens of news and reports on human rights violence in Afghanistan till this time.
Also, he has been working with the Central Afghanistan YouTube channel - (2770) Central Afghanistan - YouTube - since January 2023 and has prepared and published nearly a hundred reports or interviews on various topics including human rights violations in Afghanistan.
It is worth mentioning that carrying out the above activities has put his life in danger in Afghanistan and even in Pakistan, and he needs special support.
Certificates:
Besides having all his journalistic work proof like ID cards, HR letters, and links of activities, he has received two worthy certificates from «IFJ-International Federation of Journalists» AND «SNJ-Syndicat National des Journalistes» which recognize him as a JOURNALIST at GREAT RISK.
Request and Demand
Ghulam Hussain says:
“We need sponsors to rescue us by helping us move to Canada. I request every Canadian individual and organization to help us reach safety in Canada.”
As a UNHCR refugee, he and his family are eligible for Canada’s private sponsorship program. They need a group of five Canadian friends to support them.
To help support them as a sponsor, please contact Stephen Watt on Facebook.
You can also reach out to Ghulam Hussain directly on Facebook.
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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