Days after a suicide bomb blast killed at least 19 persons, including 13 prominent Sikh leaders, in Jalalabad of Afghanistan on July 1, 2018 a group of local artists in Kabul paid tribute to the victims by painting a huge mural of one of them, Rawail Singh, with his daughter on the wall of the office of the Kabul Governor. (Express photo)
As Dasvandh Week (Week of Giving) starts at 12:00pm EST we start by reflecting on one of the most pressing tasks at hand, the permanent displacement of Afghanistan’s minority communities.
Afghanistan today is a far cry from the multicultural trade center Guru Nanak Sahib visited five hundred years ago. Over the centuries there have been long periods of peace and harmony. In recent decades pressure on Afghan minorities has increased to convert to Islam or to leave the country. Under the current Taliban rule, life for Afghan minorities is exceedingly difficult, a daily fight to survive.
Sikh & Hindu homes, businesses and Gurudwaras have become sites of targeted violence in the last few years. Extorted for a so-called religious tax imposed on non-muslims, Sikhs & other minority groups are prohibited from making a stable living. Even when schools were open Sikh children could not go, for fear that their classmates would be forced by adults to cut their sacred hair.
Under these dire circumstances most Afghan minorities have been forced to leave Afghanistan. UNITED SIKHS teams have worked in bringing hundreds of Afghan Sikhs to safer refuge in the last few years. Currently we are working tirelessly to evacuate the 230 remaining Sikhs & Hindus from Afghanistan, among them 50 women and 50 children. The situation became very dismal when the Sikh Gurudwara where minorities were taking refuge was invaded by armed fighters claiming to be Taliban in October 2021.
UNITED SIKHS legal team is currently sponsoring approximately 35 minority families for humanitarian parole into the United States. These include Sikhs, Hindus, Hazara Muslims and Christians. Our legal team is interviewing refugees, preparing affidavits, and filling applications. We are also reaching out to numerous countries and working with them to help relocate refugees. In addition, we are writing to United States officials and joining other NGOs in lobbying for a process to allow for expedited processing of Afghan Refugee parole applications.
UNITED SIKHS has had a hotline in India since last year for Afghan refugees seeking any kind of assistance. The UNITED SIKHS India Helpdesk has been supporting 11 immigrant families from Afghanistan by providing monthly financial assistance and daily household items.
Afghan refugees with a UNITED SIKHS volunteer in New Delhi, India.
Based on requests from families in Afghanistan we are opening a food bank to help approximately 55 Sikh, Hindu and other minority families in Kabul and Jalalabad. Services will include food, clothing, medicines and any other requests based on a case by case basis.
Your support has made it possible for us to advocate for the well-being and safety of minorities in Afghanistan since 2009, building a trusted relationship with the community as evidenced in the words of Giani Keval Singh, “UNITED SIKHS has made us realize that we are not alone anywhere in this world.”
UNITED SIKHS is working around the clock to try and provide a permanent refuge to minorities remaining in Afghanistan as well as recent evacuees. With your continued support, the 500-year-old story of Afghani Sikhs can start a new chapter on a different & safer soil.
Double Your Donations
Gurvinder Singh
International Humanitarian Aid Director
Recognize the Human Race As One
