Volunteers seeking to help at-risk Afghans and others left behind in Afghanistan have emptied their retirement accounts to fund their efforts.
Safiullah Rauf was born in a refugee camp in Afghanistan and immigrated to the United States as a teenager. He subsequently enlisted in the U.S. Navy but deferred his medical school enrollment after receiving an “outpouring of cries for help” from his Afghan connections during the U.S. military’s evacuation. Instead, he formed Human First Coalition, a group whose mission is to provide safety to people left behind in Afghanistan and now living under the Taliban government.
SPAIN TO PROCEED WITH ADDITIONAL AFGHAN EVACUATIONS
The members of the organization have “dumped” their 401Ks and “funded $6 million literally through our own retirements,” a source within the organization told the Washington Examiner. “Everybody put their retirements on the line for this.”
The volunteers helped evacuate 6,000 people out of Afghanistan, including roughly 1,000 Americans, prior to the Aug. 31 withdrawal date, when U.S. and NATO troops departed the country.
After that point, they “transitioned … to provide humanitarian support for those who were left behind during the evacuation,” Alex Plitsas, a spokesman for the group, told the Washington Examiner on Monday.“There are still tens of thousands of people who did not get out during the evacuation itself, whom we have made a commitment to evacuate. Whether they’re former interpreters or whether they’re former embassy employees and their families, there’s still tens of thousands of people that have been left behind, so to speak.”
They were able to facilitate the escape of the entire family of Aman Khalili, the Afghan interpreter who helped save then-Sens. Joe Biden, John Kerry, and Chuck Hagel in 2008 when they were forced to land in an Afghan valley due to inclement weather, leaving them vulnerable to a Taliban attack. Human First Coalition’s volunteers were able to help Khalili and his family move from Mazar-e-Sharif to Kabul before taking them to the Helmand province, where they were able to escape across the border into Pakistan. They boarded a flight to Doha, Qatar, earlier this week.
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The key to their ability to operate within Afghanistan has been their willingness to be “completely transparent about what we’re doing,” Plitsas continued, noting that they’re “not trying to play James Bond or do things that we’re not supposed to be doing.”
Human First Coalition has communicated with the Taliban “when there’s a need to engage with them,” Plitsas said, explaining that, “they’ve actually been extremely cooperative to date. They have been helpful in ensuring that we get people out.” He chalked up their willingness as an effort to avoid “an international incident” and said they are mindful of not violating any foreign corruption policies.
