Name: Mahdi Akbari

Profile: Hazara refugee from Afghanistan, living in Indonesia.

Advantages: UN-certified, good English skills, Community Representative (spokesperson) and Art teacher, portrait artist.

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

Canadian contact: Stephen Watt

Mahdi’s father was captured by the Taliban while delivering books for Mahdi’s bookstore. Unfortunately, Mahdi’s National Identity Card and school certificates were also found by the Taliban, and they started looking for Mahdi. Knowing that he was at risk of being caught and killed by the Taliban, he fled to Indonesia by boat in 2014.

Despite living in a detention centre, he spent his time reading books, learning English and the art of drawing. Due to his hard work, he has been working as a portrait artist with his local community. His hope now is to find a group of friends who can bring him to Canada where he can pursue his education and become a professional portrait artist there.

His Childhood

Mahdi was born in November 1994 in a village in the Ghazni province in Afghanistan. After graduating from high school, he started his bookstore in the marketplace of Ghujur, Jaghori. His father was a taxi driver between Ghazni to Jaghori.

The Hazara people of the region have long been targets of persecution and massacres because of their culture, religion, and love for education. The Taliban would have no mercy on a Hazara bookstore owner like Mahdi - his work was dangerous.

Mahdi used to buy and bring books from Kabul to his village for his shop. In 2014, everything changed when he was returning from Kabul to his village with books for his shop. After he reached Ghazni, he gave all the books to his father and asked him to take them to their village while he stayed behind for errands. However, Mahdi’s father with his passengers were stopped by the Taliban. The Taliban found all the books and took Mahdi’s father with them.

“I was still in Ghazni when my brother contacted me and told me that my father had been captured by the Taliban. All my documents, including my National Identity Card and school certificate were with my father.”

Now the Taliban also wanted to capture Mahdi. They had been asking about Mahdi from taxi drivers and other Hazara people by showing Mahdi’s picture. Mahdi wanted to stay and help his father, but his brother told him to go to Kabul and hide. His brother would go after his father with some elders of the village to free him.

"It was a heartbreaking moment for me. I wanted to save my father and live with my family, but I had no choice without escaping from there. My brother told me to save my life from the Taliban and he would take care of our family.”

After a few days, Mahdi went to Kabul by a cargo truck hiddenly and hid there for some more days. His brother arranged for a human smuggler with the help of some of Mahdi’s friends, he went to Malaysia by plane and from there to Pekanbaru, Indonesia by boat in September 2014.

“After getting on the boat at midnight, I hid my head between my both knees because it was my first time on a boat and I was very afraid of the ocean.”

His Life in The Detention Centre

After arriving in Jakarta, Mahdi registered himself at the UNHCR office on September 24, 2014. With no right to work or way to support himself in the new country, Mahdi went to Tanjung Pinang Immigration Centre to ask for assistance. He was transferred to a detention centre in Tanjung Pinang on June 16, 2015.

“It was a building designed for criminals but we were kept there without committing any crime.”

The UNHCR provide only the minimum support to keep refugees alive, but not to thrive. Mahdi had been suffering from gastric pain for several months, but was given no special attention by the IOM Medical Staff. While living inside the detention centre, he was permitted only once to go shopping, but 4 policemen were with him for surveillance.

Despite being in the detention centre, Mahdi spent his time learning the English language, reading storybooks and learning the art of drawing.

Free from Detention, but Trapped in Limbo

Finally, on January 31, 2018, he received his freedom from the detention centre and was transferred to a Bhadra Resort, Tanjung Pinang.

There, he started teaching basic and intermediate painting classes to his refugee fellows.

Mahdi was teaching and learning portrait drawing and realistic painting with small support of IOM. He was provided sketchbooks and some pencils, but after one and a half years, IOM stopped supporting him and all his classes got dismissed. Still, he did not give up and kept working on his painting skills by himself. Luckily, he was introduced to SEM SMART a local community of drawing skills, and since then, he has been a portrait artist in SEM SMART.

Since the Taliban have taken over Afghanistan, Mahdi’s family is not safe there anymore, and he has been living with a high level of stress in limbo. Refugees in Indonesia are forgotten by the world and they have been living being deprived of their basic human rights. Due to this situation, more than 16 refugees have committed suicide.

“One of them was my friend Sahil. Losing him was an unbearable pain for me.”

You Can Help!

Mahdi hopes to find sponsors in Canada. It is a good thing that some of his friends are ready to support him for the first year he arrives in Canada. All he needs is a group of 5 friends who can be his sponsors in Canada where he can his life again.

“I dream to start a new life again in a country where I can live with peace and justice.”

An Opportunity

As a UNHCR refugee, Mahdi Akbari is eligible for Canada’s private sponsorship program. there is a way for him to live a life with freedom. All he needs is to be sponsored by a group of five Canadian friends.

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

You can also reach out to Mahdi Akbari by facebook, instagram or email: mahdishaian2020@gmail.com

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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