The Crisis in Afghanistan Is Breaking Our Hearts. Here’s What Pax Makers Can Do.
The world’s attention has been riveted by the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan — especially the desperate attempts to flee the country by those whose lives are endangered by the Taliban’s takeover. Afghan citizens clinging to the outside of planes in hopes of escape. Parents handing their babies to American soldiers. Families risking everything in hopes of reaching the Kabul airport. The devastation and bloodshed wrought by suicide bombers targeting the airport.
It has been heartbreaking and gut-wrenching to see the images of fear, chaos, pain, and suffering. For most of us, our minds don’t even have the capacity to imagine what it might be like to actually live through such a horrifying experience.
The current plight of fleeing Afghans is beyond awful. It should make us grieve and lament and rebuke the many failures of leaders, governments, and systems that allowed this preventable humanitarian crisis to happen.
But it is also nothing new.
The situation in Afghanistan is particular because of its urgency and resulting drama. Some foreigners and their Afghan allies had just a couple weeks to find a way out of the country; many will likely be left behind. The crisis has been rightly compared to the fall of Saigon in Vietnam over forty years ago.
Yet the number of refugees worldwide has been climbing sharply for years. Today, there are more than 82 million people who have been forcibly displaced, one of the highest numbers on record. Most refugees are escaping long, drawn-out violence that international media has little appetite to cover: civil wars in Syria, Libya, Somalia, and South Sudan; gang violence and organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean; conflicts in Ukraine, Turkey, and Israel and Palestine; ethnic cleansing in Ethiopia, Myanmar, and China; terrorist violence in Nigeria, Somalia, and elsewhere. Our planet is also seeing an increasing number of climate refugees; the UN estimates that 21.5 million people have been forced to flee weather-related disasters since 2010. The recent earthquake and tropical storm in Haiti, for example, have displaced thousands of people.
We live in a world full of conflict and violence. And where there is no peace, there will inevitably be refugees.
The refugee experience is deeply woven into Scripture and the history of the church. From Joseph’s family and Ruth to Jesus and early church leaders, we see God’s people fleeing violence and hunger and persecution. Even as God goes with them, they still exist in a hostile and broken world.
And over those ancient refugees to today’s refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, El Salvador, Somalia, Honduras, and elsewhere, we declare these truths: They are beloved. They are seen. They are our brothers and sisters. They have the same rights and needs as all human beings: food, water, clothing, shelter, safety, health, dignity, relationships, and community.
As Pax Makers, our call is to create lasting peace — but also to carry healing, hope, and restoration to the people and places harmed by a lack of peace. Here are a variety of ways to serve our refugee brothers and sisters, now and in the weeks and months to come:
1. Lament and Pray
Sit in grief and sorrow with refugees and all that they have lost and continue to lose. Pray for Afghanistan, that those seeking to leave would find safe passage and be able to resettle in a place where they might thrive. Pray for peace there, but also peace for other areas of the world that are experiencing ongoing conflict and suffering.
If you don’t know how to pray, this article from Christianity Today offers perspectives about the crisis in Afghanistan from 15 different Christian leaders.
2. Give
Organizations around the world are rallying around Afghans. Here are several organizations accepting financial donations:
- The International Refugee Assistance Project offers legal services to displaced Afghans.
- Keeping Our Promise provides resettlement services, including skilled trades training and accommodation support.
- The International Medical Corps offers medical training and services in Afghanistan.
- The International Rescue Committee is raising $10 million to “deliver lifesaving aid” in Afghanistan.
And to support those impacted by the natural disasters in Haiti:
- Partners in Health is providing hospital beds and outreach teams.
- World Central Kitchen is distributing food throughout the island country.
- Project HOPE partners with local organizations for emergency response, and offers Personal Protective Equipment and other medical supplies.
- Doctors Without Borders is working with hospitals to assist injured patients in Port-au-Prince and local areas.
3. Serve
Resettling in a new country is difficult for anyone — and especially for refugees, who may arrive with very limited belongings or financial resources, and traumatized from their recent ordeal. There are a number of ways to offer essential items, services, assistance, or friendship to Afghan refugees:
- Human Rights First is seeking pro bono lawyers to assist Afghan evacuees.
- The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service connects volunteers to assist Afghan refugees with travel from the airport, settling into their apartments, or providing a meal.
- New American Pathways, a resettlement nonprofit in Atlanta, wants volunteers to support Afghan refugees.
- The International Rescue Committee has volunteer opportunities across the country, including connecting refugees to services and organizing youth programs for refugee and immigrant children and youth.
4. Advocate
The crisis in Afghanistan has made absolutely clear how broken our immigration systems are. In the US, these shortcomings hold true for those seeking asylum or wanting to go through the legal immigration process.
Here are some ways you can raise your voice for more fair and efficient immigration processes:
- Email your congressional representative about urgent refugee and asylum needs through the World Relief website.
- The US Department of Homeland Security has proposed an update to the asylum process that would, among other things, double the number of asylum officers at the southern border; authorize officers to accept or reject asylum claims; and establish a straightforward appeals process. We are now in a public comment period that will close on October 19, 2021. Read more and share your support here.
- Sign up for updates from organizations like Women of Welcome, which provide regular opportunities for small, quick ways to advocate for immigration reform.
To learn more about the history of migration around the world, as well as the challenges of current immigration policies and how this relates to faith, follow our next StoryArc on the topic of migration, coming in September. Join Pax for free to access exclusive content and be the first to know when StoryArc is released.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun is an award-winning writer, a communications consultant, and the author of two books: Start, Love, Repeat: How to Stay in Love with Your Entrepreneur in a Crazy Start-up World and Let There d.light: How One Social Enterprise Brought Solar Products to 100 Million People. Her next book, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul, will be released in 2022. She currently serves as an editor with Pax.
