Name: Mohammad Mahdi Nazari

Profile: Hazara refugee from Afghanistan, living in Indonesia.

Advantages: UN-certified, good English skills, educated.

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

Canadian contact: Stephen Watt

Mahdi, an Auto Mechanical student came to his village in his holidays, and he volunteered in the election commission there. He was then arrested by the Taliban for his voluntary work with the government and luckily got the chance to escape from their hands and fled to Indonesia by boat in 2014.

In Indonesia, he spent three and a half years inside a detention centre and now lives in a community house.

He needs a group of friends who can bring him to Canada where he can live his life peacefully, work to support his family, pursue his education and be a contributing member of the community where he lives.

My Story

My name is Mohammad Mahdi Nazari, I was born in 1994 in Jaghori district in Ghazni province in Afghanistan. After I finished high school, I went to Kabul and began studying at the Auto Mechanic Institute in 2014.

The Hazara people of my region have long been targets of persecution and violence because of our culture, religion and love of education.

In my holidays I went to my village in Jaghori to see my family and I volunteered in the election commission there. In September 2014 I returned to Kabul with one of my friends to resume our studies.

Abducted

On our way to Kabul, the Taliban stopped our car and said to me that they had seen me and my friend working in the electoral commission.

“We got so scared and didn’t know what to do. The Taliban tied up our hands, blindfolded us and took us to an old house.”

After a few hours, some members of the Taliban came to us, checked our bags and drove us to another house not far away.

We were kept inside a dark room there. We knew the Taliban planned to kill us so we looked for an opportunity to escape that night.

“We escaped but, unfortunately, we lost each other due to the darkness of the night.”

After I reached the main road, I begged help from a passing car to take me to Ghazni and from there made my way to Kabul on September 12, 2014.

My Journey

In Kabul, my father’s friend ran a guest house and I stayed there until he arranged for a people smuggler to fly me to New Delhi, India 10 days later. The day after I flew to Malaysia and I arrived in Pekanbaru, Indonesia by boat on September 25, 2014.

Life in Limbo

After staying in Pekanbaru for seven days I went to Jakarta and registered at the UNHCR office and stayed in Bogor for over a week. I don’t have work rights in Indonesia so I made my way to the Balikpapan Immigration Centre on October 6, 2014. The next day I was transferred to a detention centre where I began learning English from other volunteer refugees.

After three and a half years I received freedom from the detention centre on June 5, 2018, and I now live in a community house in Batam, Indonesia.

My Life Now

I have no formal work or education rights in Indonesia. But I have volunteered cutting hair and cooking for other refugees and these experiences have taught me that I can learn new skills quickly. I know myself to be a flexible and reliable worker and am willing to try my hand at any job opportunity.

“I love to play Futsal and am very proud of the winning achievements of my team.”

I am looking forward to freedom and the possibility of being able to take up studying again. I would love the chance to re-start my study to become an auto mechanic. I know I will work hard and am confident I can rebuild my life given the opportunity.

Sadly, my father passed away in 2019 but my mother and sister and brother still live in Jaghori and they give me strong motivation to succeed in my life.

The Opportunity

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

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

You can also reach out to Mahdi directly on Facebook.

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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