Name: Karima Hakimi and her family

Profile: Hazara refugee from Afghanistan, living in Indonesia.

Advantages: UN-certified, a professional midwife, 8 years of theory and clinical experience as a midwife in the hospital, experienced as a mother and child health officer and as midwifery education program and policy instructor, good English skills.

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

Canadian contact: Stephen Watt

Karima Hakimi is a woman who saved many lives while serving as a midwife in different parts of Afghanistan. She also inspired and taught many women in Afghanistan to be in the field of midwifery and save women’s lives in childbirth. However, she was threatened by the Taliban due to her service, and sensing danger from the Taliban, she escaped to Kabul, but she received threatening phone calls there as well. So, she fled to Indonesia in 2017.

Despite living in a refugee camp for 5 years, she has been taking care of her children and her 75 years old mother. Also, her children are not allowed to get proper education, so she teaches them herself.

She now hopes to find a group of friends who can help her and her family come to Canada where they can live peacefully and Karima can pursue her dream of doing PhD in public health.

Childhood

Karima Hakimi was born on November 12, 1987 in a village in Dandughuri district in Baghlan province in Afghanistan. As a child, she helped her parents in buying and selling biscuits at their small shop and gathering firewood for the winter heat during the hot summer days. Also, she kept going to school in her village.

At the age of 8, Karima found out from her neighbors that her parents were not her biological parents. After questioning, she found out that her mother died of severe bleeding while giving birth to her, and her father was not able to take care of her so he gave her to her custodial parents who had no child.

“It was a very shocking and very painful truth for me, and I came to know that Afghanistan had the highest rate of maternal mortality in all over the world due to poor health care.”

At the age of 15, she became a home teacher and had 8 students. By teaching them, she could hardly cover her school expenses and fees of other courses like Math class and English language course.

In childhood, she wanted to become a pilot, but after knowing everything, she changed her mind and decided to become a midwife to help women with childbirth. She also started encouraging other girls to study nursing and midwifery to save Afghan women during childbirth.

Her Story

In 2005, she completed her high school education and got good scores to join the Institute of Health Science in the field of Midwifery in Kabul.

In 2008, she received her diploma and then started working as a midwife with Bakhter Development Network in Daikundi province in Afghanistan.

From February 2009 to February 2010, she served as a hospital midwife at Istiqlal Public Hospital in Kabul.

She remained a midwifery education trainer with Agha Khan Health Services in Baghlan from March 2010 to October 2013.

Then she got promoted and became provincial mother and child health officer. She was a good supervisor for midwives in 11 Health Facilities in Baghlan province.

On December 28, 2014 Karima was at Rabat Clinic located in Doshi district in Baghlan. Three men and an old woman brought a pregnant woman named Saira.

“After checking Saira, I got that she was in a very critical situation, and our clinic didn’t have enough facility to help her, so I told them to take her to the hospital as soon as possible.”

Saira’s husband got angry and started arguing with Karima instead of taking his wife to the hospital immediately. Karima didn’t react, and eventually, they went towards the hospital.

The Tragic News

The next day Karima heard from one of her colleagues that Saira had died because her husband and the two other men were members of the Taliban and they got arrested by the police while being on their way to the hospital. They had guns with themselves.

“The news of her death made me so sad. On the other hand, knowing that those men were members of the Taliban, I started quivering with fear.”

Threatened

Some days later, the three men got free. They came to the clinic and told the guard that they knew one of the doctors had reported the police about them. And Saira’s husband accused Karima and the other women doctor of his wife’s death.

“Saira’s husband started threatening me to bring my husband to him. I knew that he would definitely kill my husband and then do whatever he wanted against me.”

Karima shared this with her husband and they both decided to escape to Kabul for their safety. They both changed their phone numbers, but Karima started receiving threatening phone calls again. They even knew her new address and it was confirmed that Karima and her family were no longer safe in Afghanistan.

“I had started living in horror and danger. While walking outside, I was at risk of being kidnapped, killed or attacked by the Taliban. I was doubting on every person passing by of being one of them”

Leaving Home

Karima and her family had their passports ready, so they flew from Kabul to New Delhi, India in July 2017, and stayed there for 6 days. During those 6 days, they arranged for a people smuggler and then, they flew to Malaysia and then on to Medan, Indonesia. On the same night, they flew from Medan to Jakarta on August 1, 2017.

Her Life In Limbo

They registered themselves at the UNHCR office in Jakarta on August 2, 2017. Due to not having any supporter, Karima and her family went to Kalideres Immigration Centre to ask for assistance. After staying on the side road for a week, they were transferred inside the immigration centre.

“We are a family of 7 persons and we were given only one small room inside the immigration centre.”

After spending 4 months there, they were transferred to another camp in Tangerang.

They have been living there since then.

Despite living in a refugee camp for five years and facing a health problem, Karima has kept her hopes up and has spent her time in learning, teaching her children and taking care of her four kids and her custodial mother (75 YO). She has also created a YouTube channel in which she uploads informative videos.

Their Health Conditions

Karima’s mother has a heart problem and she is hypertensive. Also, she is at risk of brain stroke.

Karima has a nose allergy to the rainy weather in Indonesia, she suffers every day with 20-25 times sneezing, blocked nose, and she has to take every day anti-allergy medicines.

Karima is so stressed with limbo, and a long time waiting in the refugee camp without any job opportunity. She thinks that she and her children are losing their golden time in camp without any social and personal life improvement.

“Due to these tensions, I can’t sleep at night. When I am able to, I start having nightmares. Most nights, when I think excessively, I feel like my throat is blocked and I can’t breathe. In that situation, I want to walk outside to breathe fresh air, but the security guards do not let me, because we are not allowed to leave our rooms after 10 PM.”

Karima's 2 years old daughter has two holes in her heart. She may need surgery, and Karima is really worried for her little beautiful daughter. As a mother, she cannot stop thinking about her daughter’s heart problem.

Her ambitions

“I'm enthusiastic to do my PhD in public health, and to learn new things, acquire new skills, and help the world.”

As an educated mother, Karima wishes her children to go to school and get education.

She hopes to be resettled with her family in a country where she can work hard and provide her children with all the facilities they need.

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

To help support Karima and her family as a sponsor, please contact Stephen Watt on Facebook.

You can also reach out to Karima Hakimi by Email.

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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