Name: A family of 5 – Aaron and Sandra, plus children Will (18), Zara (16) and Harry (8) (false names for their safety)

Profile: Hazara refugee family from Afghanistan, living in Indonesia.

Advantages: UN-certified, father is trained goldsmith, marquetry and jeweller and mother is skilled at needlepoint

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

Canadian contact: Stephen Watt

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Aaron was a successful goldsmith supporting his wife, Sandra and their 3 children, Will, Zara and Harry with his craft. When the Taliban discovered that he created a statue of Jesus, he was imprisoned. Not knowing if Aaron would even survive, his family went on the run to Kabul. When Aaron escaped, they had no choice except to flee to Indonesia, or face death.

Zara is 16 now and still a refugee in Indonesia. While most 16 year olds are worrying about their drivers test, Zara is advocating for her family, and looking for a life of peace and freedom – looking for a future. As a refugee, the family have no rights – no school, no work, limited health care. The UNHCR does not resettle refugees in Indonesia. Zara is resourceful – she has a friend in Australia willing to raise all the funds needed for the private sponsorship program to Canada – she just needs 5 Canadian friends to guide her family to a life of freedom.

Born a Refugee

This is the story off Zara, a 16 year old girl from Afghanistan, and her family. Unlike a typical 16 year old, Zara has never had the chance to go to a normal school. She has been studying on her own and learning English. She is pursuing a better life for her whole family. Her family is still in danger, so we are not able to use their real name or photos for this profile.

Zara was born a refugee. For her entire life, her and her older and younger brothers have had no rights, no access to education, or healthcare. Zara and her siblings were born in Iran because their parents, who are Hazara, couldn’t live safely in Afghanistan.

As an ethnic minority, the Hazara face widespread systematic discrimination, targeting and persecution with ruthless ethnic cleansing in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Taliban and ISIS have targeted the Hazara for more than a century and no place is safe. Houses, shops, markets, squares and even schools are not safe and have been targeted in suicide attacks for decades. Individual Hazaras are targeted for extortion through accusations of blasphemy.

To avoid the violence, Zara's parents fled to Iran. Her parents are artisans. Her father, Ahmad, is a skilled jeweller and woodworker. Her mother, Sandra, is skilled at embroidery and needlepoint. They had their first beautiful child, Will, in 2004. Zara was born in 2006 and her baby brother, Harry, was born in 2014.

“My father was a jeweler, and my mother is a housekeeper. We were a happy family when we lived in Iran.”

Delivered to Danger

Aaron and Sandra lived, worked and raised their family in Iran. But Iran does not recognize refugees, and the family was under the constant threat of deportation back to Afghanistan. One day, their luck ran out. In 2015, with Zara only 9, Will 11 and Harry under one year, her father was detained by the police and then deported to Afghanistan for working illegally as a goldsmith. Zara was in third grade. Her family’s life was torn apart, and not for the last time.

“My mother took my brother and me to enroll us in school, but the school did not register us because we were refugees and didn’t have any valid documents to live there. On 25/04/2015 my mother decided we had to return to Afghanistan due to the many problems we faced there.”

They moved to a small village in Jaghori, Afghanistan. Her father opened a jewelry shop, he was successfully working and supporting his family.

Accused of Blasphemy

A customer in Kabul requested that Aaron make a statue of Jesus. Hazara are open-minded and educated about other cultures. To Aaron, this was a normal request. To the Taliban, it was a death sentence. On the way to Kabul, Aaron was stopped by the Taliban. They found the statue of Jesus and he was arrested by the Taliban for blasphemy.

In Zara’s words:

“My father was in the Taliban’s prison in Qarabagh district of Ghazni province of Afghanistan for a week and my mom was crying all the time when my father was in the Taliban jail. My father’s uncle told us that we have to leave the village but we didn’t know where we should go? I asked my mother where we are going? We decided to go to Kabul because we were not safe in our village.”

Imagine being a single woman on the run with three children - 11, 9 and 1 years old? Her mom, Sandra, found them a small apartment in Kabul where they could visit their father and be safe. But they wouldn’t stay there for long.

In a daring move, Aaron escaped prison. He reunited with his family and after a week, they left Kabul for India then Malaysia, and finally, to Indonesia. They arrived in December 2015.

“The journey was not really easy. We came from Malaysia to Indonesia by boat. I never forgot the fear I felt on the way.”

A Childhood in Limbo

“It’s seven years that we have been living in Indonesia in a worse situation. The life of a refugee in Indonesia is not easy.”

The UNHCR is not resettling the refugees from Indonesia – without private sponsorship to Canada, Zara’s family has no hope of leaving. That means no opportunity for school, work or success. Rather than despair, the family still has hope. Zara and her siblings have been practicing English and studying the best that they can.

Will, now 18 years old, wants to work in cyber security. He also wants to be a football player. He is a midfielder, and a Barcelona fan.

Zara wants to be dress designer and also to be an artist one day.

Harry dreams of a safe home, where he can go to school. Like most young boys, he likes cars and airplanes.

Aaron and Sandra dream of living in a country where they can work to support their family and help their children’s dreams come true.

The Opportunity

Zara and her family’s dreams can come true in Canada. Since they are officially certified as a refugee by the UNHCR – unlike the vast majority of the world’s refugees – they qualify for Canada’s private sponsorship program.

Another advantage about this family is that they have a friend in Australia who has agreed to fundraise the costs of their first year in Canada.

If you would like to sponsor this family – or if you’re just interested in helping to bring them here – please contact his friend Stephen Watt on Facebook.

You can also reach out to Zara directly on Facebook.

Reach out and discover how wonderful it is to privately sponsor a family to start a new life – with your help – in Canada!

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