Name: Habibullah Mohammadi

Profile: Hazara refugee from Afghanistan, living in Indonesia.

Advantages: UN-certified, good English skills, volunteer English teacher, experienced baker.

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

Canadian contact: Stephen Watt

Habibullah was a baker and he used to bake breads for the Afghan military in his village. After the Taliban came to know, they killed his two colleagues and father. Their next target was Habibullah, so he fled to Indonesia by boat to save his life in 2014.

While living in a detention centre for 39 months, he spent his time learning English, and after receiving his freedom, he started volunteering as an English teacher. His hope now is to find a group of friends who can help him come to Canada to start his life again.

His Early Life

Habibullah was born in 1997 in a village of the Qarabagh district in Ghazni 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. At the age of 14, Habibullah started working in a bakery which was located in the marketplace of Zardalu, Qarabagh. Around Habibullah’s village, the majority of the Pashtun population were living, so his many customers were Pashtun and they knew everything about the bakery’s workers and the entire village. The bakery had a contract with the Afghan military as well. Habibullah and his colleagues used to bake 120 breads daily for the Afghan military.

On July 27, 2014, the Taliban sent a threatening letter to those working in the bakery through a taxi driver. In the letter, Habibullah and his colleagues were threatened to stop sending breads to the military. Two colleagues of Habibullah left their job immediately, and then his boss persuaded the rest not to be afraid.

“Our boss told us not to worry because the driver had been joking with us. So, we believed our boss and continued working there.”

The Incident That Made Him Flee

One day in August 2014, Habibullah’s boss told him to start baking later since his boss was going to attend a funeral. Habibullah had free time, so he decided to have tea with his father. He took the tray of tea with him and went towards the land where his father was working. There was a hill on his way, and when he reached there, he saw some members of the Taliban beating his father.

“I got very frightened. After I ran to my home and told my mother everything, she started crying and then we escaped to my aunt’s home which was in another village.”

Habibullah’s mother asked his aunt’s husband, Mohammad Ali to go and see what had happened to Habibullah’s father. When he came back, he told Habibullah that his father and his two colleagues had been killed. Now, the Taliban had been looking for Habibullah and they had searched his home as well.

The Way to Indonesia

Mohammad Ali got Habibullah and his mother to Kabul hiddenly. Now that Habibullah was the Taliban’s next target, Mohammad Ali arranged for a people smuggler to send Habibullah to a safe place. On July 27, 2014, Habibullah flew to New Delhi, India and stayed there for 8 days. Then he went to Malaysia by plane where he stayed for a week. On September 5, 2014, he arrived in Pekanbaru, Indonesia by boat.

Life in the Detention Centre

Habibullah registered himself with the UNHCR on October 1, 2014 in Pekanbaru. With no right to work or way to support himself in the new country, he went to Pekanbaru Immigration Centre to ask for assistance. On December 17, 2014, he was transferred to a detention centre that was overcrowded and refugees did not have access to proper food, enough water and proper health care.

Due to lack of water, Habibullah and other refugees suffered from different kinds of skin diseases like Scabies and Fungal.

When Habibullah came to Indonesia, he could not speak English and Indonesian language, but he used his time there in a positive way and learned English and Indonesian languages from volunteers inside the detention centre.

Finally, in March 2018, Habibullah received his freedom from the detention centre and was transferred to a community house which is in a rural area and far from the city in the Bintan region.

His Dreams

Habibullah participated in an electronic course that was provided by IOM and received its certificate successfully. He has been volunteering as an English teacher for 2 years.

“Since childhood, I have been dreaming of educating kids in the journey of their life. I hope someday I will be able to support my family and be a useful person in the community I will be resettled.”

Since the Taliban have taken over Afghanistan, Habibullah has no way to return to his home nor he can continue his life in Indonesia, because he does not have the right to work, get education, drive and travel to another city. The only way for him is to be sponsored in a country like Canada where he can live his life again.

As a UNHCR refugee, Habibullah is eligible for Canada’s private sponsorship program. He needs a group of five Canadian friends to support him.

To help support Habibullah as a sponsor, please contact Stephen Watt on Facebook.

You can also reach out to Habibullah directly on Facebook - or by email: paimantamkin8@gmail.com or WhatsApp: + 6283161073169

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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