Fellows in Action

Afghanistan & Haiti: Where To Donate

August 18, 2021

By The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellows Association

This week we have been following the devastating news of the earthquake in Haiti and the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Given our community’s personal and professional connections to both countries we wanted to put together non-profit recommendations from Paul & Daisy Soros Fellows who know these countries well. While financial donations are the most clear cut way to give, there are other types of resources as well. This is by no means an exhaustive list of organizations. Thanks to everyone who is working on these issues.

Afghanistan: Non-Profits to Donate to Now

AFCECO Kabul – First, there’s a great set of resources that the Afghan Diaspora for Equality & Progress put together for anyone who wants to help, whether by lifting their voice or by making a donation. I would recommend supporting this orphanage for children and girls in Kabul, as well as Visions for Children e.V., a Hamburg-based organization that improves school conditions and builds school projects for children in Afghanistan and other countries facing conflict. – Hajjar Baban (2021 Fellow), is an Afghan Kurdish poet who was born in Pakistan and immigrated to the United States with her parents when she was a young child

Afghan Americans Foundation – You can find a vetted list of donation and volunteer opportunities at the Afghan Americans Foundation website. If you lead a foundation or academic or art institution and can sponsor at-risk migrants, please start a serious conversation in your institution about how to do it, and consult At Risk Artists for models and resources. You can donate specifically to help Afghan artists and writers via the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association (AAAWA). – Mariam Ghani (2001 Fellow), artist, writer, filmmaker, and teacher

Children of War – To help some of the thousands of newly displaced families across Afghanistan who have been uprooted from their homes principally due to escalating violence in recent weeks, TCOW is providing critical humanitarian assistance where it’s most needed. Impoverished individuals are desperately scrambling to find emergency shelters, food, water, and basic necessities. Displaced families are desperate for food and during the next few weeks Afghanistan may face food shortages and higher prices. I would also recommend MSF (Doctors Without Borders), which runs five projects in five Afghan provinces: Helmand, Herat, Kandahar, Khost, and Kunduz. In 2020, MSF teams provided 112,000 emergency room consultations, assisted 37,000 births, and undertook 5,600 major surgical interventions. I recommend the Fellows donate to this organization because my contacts in Afghanistan report that they are one of the few organizations in Afghanistan right now that are fully operational and are working to assist Afghans. When donating please make sure to earmark your donation specifically for Afghanistan. – Homaira Hosseini (2011 Fellow), is an immigrant from Afghanistan, an attorney at Lyft, and the chair of the board of directors of the Afghan-American Community Organization (AACO)

International Rescue Committee – The International Rescue Committee is an established humanitarian organization that has been working in Afghanistan for more than three decades—including during the last Taliban period. They are careful but not deterred by the Taliban, and they have the networks and existing infrastructure to reach Afghans throughout the country. The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan also have those characteristics. – Anja Ipp (2009 Fellow), is co-founder of the climate law consultancy Climate Change Counsel and was previously communications officer at the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (2006-08)

No One Left Behind – As a former infantry officer who deployed three times to Afghanistan, I am deeply concerned about the many interpreters who served shoulder-shoulder with U.S troops and who are still in Afghanistan. Please consider donating to this organization that is working tirelessly to re-settle and support those Afghans who remain in danger because of their service to the United States. – Khalil Tawil (2014 Fellow), is executive vice president and head of strategy at iHeartMedia and co-founder of Service to School

Shuhada Organization – I would recommend Shuhada Organization, which is an Afghan-led NGO that was started in 1989 by Dr. Sima Samar, one of the first female physicians and who led the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission for many years. They have had a great relationship with international aid organizations, run several hospitals, schools and orphanages and have been able to get critical aid to rural Afghans and the displaced over the past 30 years. Shuhada has a website where you can access their reports, news, and donate. I would recommend The New York Times list and this website, which is a great resource that young Afghan-Americans are using to find the latest protests and talking points, which coincidentally also has a list of vetted charitable organizations that you can support. – Parwiz Abrahimi (2013 Fellow) is a first generation Afghan-American of Hazara descent who is currently a fifth year urological surgery resident at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell

Haiti: Non-Profits to Donate to Now

Hope for Haiti – I have generally been referring friends to Partners in Health and Hope for Haiti and other local organizations with a proven history of on the ground service. Here are some important lessons learned from the 2010 Earthquake efforts. – Alex-Handrah Aime (2002 Fellow), is director of network investments and emerging markets at Facebook and an immigrant from Haiti

FOKAL – Fondasyon Konesans Ak Libète (Foundation for Knowledge and Liberty) – In my role as a co-founder and steering committee member of the Haitian Ladies Network, a 60,000 global network of Haitian women in the US, Haiti and beyond, I’ve reached out to the community to stress the importance of donating to reputable causes, not shipping supplies that may cause delays at the ports, and only sharing verified information. In addition to Partners in Health/Zanmi Lasante, we’ve recommended donating to FOKAL. We have worked closely with both of these trusted partners, and they have experience on the ground delivering help immediately and directly to affected communities.- Nadine Duplessy Kearns (1998 Fellow), is director of DC Partnerships & Strategy at the Meyer Foundation and an immigrant from Haiti

Myriam Chancy’s Resource List – This site lists credible relief funds so that people can choose an organization that aligns with their donation priorities. The list was organized by Myriam Chancy who wrote a book on the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. – Cherline Bazile (2019 Fellow), is a writer and the child of immigrants from Haiti

Partners In Health/Zanmi Lasante – They are particularly equipped and experienced in delivering care in the rural areas of Haiti, not only because of their medical expertise, existing supply chains, and close collaboration with the government and local agencies, but also because of who they are as people and what they stand for. I say this as someone who has worked on the ground, in these hard-to-reach rural areas of Haiti, side by side with the amazing courage, spirit, and passion of my Haitian colleagues and friends at PIH/ZL for over many years, who are committed to the ideal of the preferential option to the poor for health care, human rights, and universal dignity. – Shinichi Daimyo (2015 Fellow), is a global mental health expert who worked for Partners in Health in Haiti

Project Medishare – I have family members on the ground in Port-au-Prince working directly with Project Medishare to provide life-saving care to impacted victims. We know Haiti has a long, unfortunate history of not receiving access to donations, disaster-after-disaster. Donations here will go to an organization and individuals I trust. – Leslie-Bernard Joseph (2013 Fellow), is CEO of Coney Island Prep in New York City and the child of immigrants from Haiti

University of Miami Haiti Earthquake Relief Effort– The University of Miami is the only institution in the USA whose medical school dean is a Haitian-born pediatric surgeon with extensive experience providing surgical care and leading humanitarian initiatives in Haiti for many years. This distinction alone makes the University of Miami ideally suited to lead the disaster response in Haiti, which you can read about here in the Haitian Times. There are however further strengths:

They have a Haiti-focused non-profit with 30 years of experience.
They are geographically ideally located from a logistics standpoint.
They have partnered with Haiti’s ministries of health and planning, and will therefore avoid working on any agenda that contradicts the current government’s relief priorities.
They are a trusted partner and collaborator of multiple highly respected NGOs with extensive experience in Haiti, as well as a coordinator for USAID, the military, and other international partners working on the Haiti response at this time.