I hope this finds you well. We have incredible news.
Last year, Mica, our National Director of Resettlement, came to me with
the case of Naqib - an Afghan translator who served the Marines for four
years in the extremely dangerous Helmand Province. In 2013, he lost his
job as a translator due to the draw down of US forces. One of the privileges
of being a translator is that they get to live on the US military base
during their service - where they are very protected. Once they stop working
as a translator, however, they must move off the base - and thus, lose
its protection.
Naqib moved back to his parents' home in Kunduz (a province in Northern
Afghanistan). Within weeks of returning home, the Taliban besieged his
city and began hunting him and his friends (whom he had recruited to also
serve as translators to our military). Naqib spent the next two years
hiding in a windowless room (for fear anyone might unexpectedly see him)
in the back of the home. Whenever the Taliban came to search, his parents
would claim he'd fled abroad, praying they wouldn't search the
crawl space where he hid at that moment.
After a year of such living, Naqib reached his breaking point. He contemplated
suicide and eventually decided to end his life. As he was writing his
goodbye letter on Facebook, a friend posted a clip of the Ellen show,
causing Naqib to laugh for the first time in months. He copied her name
into YouTube and discovered a whole new joyful world - Ellen's world.
One clip became dozens, leading to full episodes. He watched as much of
Ellen as he could find. He resolved to not kill himself that night - he
wanted to find out what happened on tomorrow's episode.
After months of working on his case, Mica was able to secure Naqib his
promised visa. In the early morning hours of September 27, 2015, Naqib
left his parents' home for the first time in two years, taking the
hours long bus ride from Kunduz to the US Embassy in Kabul. Upon reaching
Kabul, Naqib called his father to tell him he'd arrived safely. His
father, replied he had feared Naqib was dead -
the Taliban had attacked and taken the entire city only minutes after Naqib left. We got Naqib out within minutes of the
Taliban raiding his home city, looking to kill him.
We greeted Naqib at the airport in Washington DC in early October 2015.
Since his arrival, we've helped him to find a home, furnished that
home, and found him a job. Soon, we hope to buy him a car. But all along
his journey, he's only had one ask - to meet Ellen to thank her for
giving him the will to live and returning joy to his life.
A few weeks ago, we arranged for Naqib to meet Ellen and share his amazing story.
Naqib is alive today because you helped us Keep America's Promise.
There are 35,000 more people just like Naqib - translators and their immediate
family - who will either die at the hands of our enemies or find safety,
as promised, here in the US. Help us keep that promise and bring them home.
-Cheers,
Matt