History & Motive

Ever since I started being aware of good, evil, sadness and happiness, I enjoy helping people. In my opinion, this is one of the noblest acts. After I finished school, I returned to my village. In our village, the influence of the Russian army had not manifested itself. The area was controlled by opponents of the then communist government.

I tried to educate myself in the study-institut of the village and to learn foreign languages. However, most study-institutions had to close due to the constant bombardment of the Russian. In search of a meaningful occupation I found myself performing social work in the village. I stayed in the village for a while but then immigrated first to Pakistan and then to Iran.

I lived as an immigrant in Iran, when one day a young afghan man approached me and asked me to work with him and to help him withdraw his opium addiction. At that time I was about 19 years old, I promised to help him and I fulfilled that promise. Over time, we became business partners and friends.

One day, my friend’s mother from Pakistan called me. The worried mother had traveled from Afghanistan to Pakistan just for this call. The worried words of the poor mother caused a tremor in my whole body. The only wish of this old lady was to see her son alive again. She asked me to fulfill her wish. I gave her my word to make this happen and whatever it would take to send her son to her home. Within two weeks I sold all my belongings, I gave this money to my friend and a week later he was home with his mother.

On the way to Turkey I joined a group of people from my village. The tugs, who were responsible to take us to Turkey, left us in the mountains for over two days. The first night we all sat together and told each other about our sufferings. When I spoke, I said to my friends: “Once we have reached our goal and found work, we have to help the poor people of our village every month.” The next day though some men, fearing for their lives, turned themselves in to the Turkish police and were deported back to Iran.

On the third day, the tugs picked us up again, the tugs were talking about Afghanistan and the US, but we could not understand what they were saying because they spoke in turkish. After eleven days of hiking through the mountains, we finally reached the Turkish city of Van. The conversation of the tugs made sense to me only a month later, when I arrived in Istanbul. The tugs had talked about the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers in New York. The attack had taken place on the day the tugs had left us in the mountains.

After a seven-month tiring journey, I arrived in Norway. One year later I was sent back to Austria because of the Dublin Convention. In Austria, I waited about five years for the result of my asylum procedure. At the end of 2007, after a long wait, I got the result and it was decided in my favor.

With the positive decision, I was finally allowed to work in Austria. After the third day, I found a job at Quorum, where I am still employed today. The company offered me a good working environment and working conditions. This way I started feeling at ease and home.

I twice decided to set up a Aid-Organization, the first time in 2009 and the second time in 2012. I wanted to send goods from work, which otherwise would have been put in the garbage, in containers to Afghanistan and distribute it to the needy there. However, the Afghan bureaucracy and the local culture of bribery stood in the way of my project, I was forced to give up my idea.

I was disappointed but refused to give up. Instead, in 2009, with the help of my wife and children, I started a school for girls in our village, which we still finance as a family on our own.

Here in Austria we live carefree, we have access to work, education, a functioning health system and we do not have to worry about the next meal. In Afghanistan, the situation is different, there everybodys daily life is accompanied by terror, you often do not know where the next meal should come from. Many children have no access to education, and those who have completed their education do not find work.

Since 2008, with the support of my friends and acquaintances, I have tried to help the people of Afghanistan as far as I could, but this help is far from enough. To heal the wounds of the 40-year war, it needs a lot more supporters.

In 2014, the Afghans founded a cultural association called the “Great Afghan Culture Association”. After founding this association, we made contacts with different people. These contacts led us to hold together and once again with the help of compassionate supporters to start the foundation of a relief organization. This time, however, we are not alone. We have many supporters in Austria who share the same goals as us. To help orphans, widows, war victims and war-poor people in Afghanistan. We are hopeful this time to be victorious in our plan.

In December 2018, we submitted the application for our relief organization: “Save Afghan Mother and Child (SAMC)” and in January 2019 our application was approved in Austria.

After several days of discussions, phone calls and exchange of ideas, we also brought together helping hands in Kabul, consisting of boys, energetic, educated women and men. They have agreed to form an association in Kabul and help us to overcome the corruption culture and bureaucracy of the Afghan government.

All this is possible only with your help and support!

SAMC

After this act, I felt an indescribable joy. A few months later, I received a letter from Afghanistan that contained the details of someone who was imprisoned in Bandar-Abbas Iran. The man could not pay the government fine worth 70,000-Iranian-TOMAN and was those imprisoned. I found a man, who had collected money for the punishment of other Afghans before and together with his help I paid the fine of the imprisoned man. Finally I sent him home to his family.

Meanwhile, social work was part of my everyday life. After work, I and some friends of mine would get the young Afghans together, warn them to stay away from crime and do something for their future. This way, we managed to free three young Afghan boys of our age from heroin and opium addiction and bring them back to everyday life.

After the Russians left Afghanistan and the government opponents came to power, some immigrants from Iran returned, including myself. The destruction was everywhere, almost the entire infrastructure of the country had been destroyed, poverty grew day by day. The absence of rain and snow made the situation even worse.

Under these circumstances, I had mentally adjusted myself to the toughest working conditions in order to bring honest earned bread home. In Iran, I had learned the trade to tailor, now I repaired the sewing machines of all my relatives. One day, I thought about doing this as a full-time job and so I did that for the next two years.

The economic situation of my fellow people was very bad and my own was not better. I remember very well that for a month we did not have oil for cooking at home. Although I loved living in the village, I was forced to leave it, especially since I was now the father of three young girls who needed access to education, which they had been denied to in the village. So we moved to the capital Kabul.

In Kabul, worries were written on people’s faces. The fear of the war, the hunger and the uncertainty of the future made everyday life difficult for everyone. Since my nephew vouched for me, I was able to buy goods from wholesalers in Kabul, which I then sold at a profit on the central marketplace in Deh-Afghanan.

Every day I hired two teenagers as day laborers, they paid attention to my goods and I legally paid them. It was a win for both sides and those this went on for a year. The real reason why I moved to the city was to give my children access to education. However, I realized that this would not happen in Kabul either. So I decided to leave my home and family behind and emigrate. For I knew that this was the only way to save the future of my children from the darkness of war.