An Afghan man working in Marin welcomed his family home this week after they and thousands of others were stranded in Kabul following the U.S. troop withdrawal last summer.
Siawash Safi was reunited with his wife Laila, his son Adeed, 9, his daughter Edaneda, 5, and his parents, Abdul Hadi Safi and Jamila Safi, at San Francisco International Airport on Tuesday. Safi works as director of technology for Roots of Peace, a humanitarian organization in San Rafael.
Heidi Kuhn, chief executive of Roots of Peace, said she advocated to bring Safi’s family back to the Bay Area. Kuhn said the organization has been trying to evacuate 50 employees trapped in Afghanistan since August.
“We are actively working with members of the Marin community to secure housing for these Afghan families,” Kuhn said.
She said the children were on bus rides to the airport in Kabul in August when they witnessed shootings and walked “over dead bodies.”
“So sad for the Afghan children,” she said.
The family left Kabul last month and made it to a camp in Doha, Qatar. They arrived in the U.S. in mid-December and were housed with 10,000 refugees at a camp at Fort Dix, New Jersey. After undergoing medical screening they were cleared to travel to the Bay Area.
Safi’s family is now living in Pleasanton. He is still looking for housing for his parents.
Safi, who still has siblings and other family in Afghanistan, said he hopes more organizations will call for aid for people who remain in the country, not just for those who have fled.
“It’s not only about security, it’s about poverty and it’s threatening people’s lives,” he said. “I can say a deadly winter is coming — people are without food, without money in Afghanistan.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com