Donate to help Rafi fulfill his dreams

As a UNHCR refugee, Rafi is eligible for Canada’s private sponsorship program. You can join our Settlement Team as a co-sponsor or volunteer to help us bring Rafi to safety here in Canada.

Once Rafi has landed here, he would be a permanent resident and over time be eligible to sponsor his family to come here and start up his own coffee shop or be a manager in the hospitality industry

To help support Rafi, please contact Quinte Refuge on Facebook or email us at: [email redacted] or donate through our GoFundMe link. Funds are used to provide one year of support for the newcomer. Tax receipts can be issued for donations over $20 through our sister organization All-Together Housing which is a Community Sponsor for Rafi.

Reach out and discover how wonderful it is to privately sponsor a good person to start a new life – with your help – in Canada!

RAFI'S STORY

My name is Mohammad Rafi Mahmoudi, a Hazara ethnic from the Turkman valley, Parwan Province, Afghanistan. I am 23 years old, and the second child in my family of 7 with 5 other siblings. Currently, I am a third-year student at the Pelita Harapan University, Indonesia, majoring in Hospitality Management.

Life in Afghanistan

I was born into a normal family. My father was a construction worker. Later, he found employment in a rural development company and got contracts from the government and private organizations. However, this was a problem for people who worked with them because the Taliban was targeting them. They accused them of treason and called them infidels, especially Hazaras and the Shia community who were the main targets. My father often went to work in other cities and come home every one or two months.

The reason I left Afghanistan

One day, I went with my father to Kabul to fix my laptop and due to the lack of computer repair shops in Parwan, we had to go to Kabul. We went with his friend, Noor Ali, who was a driver that took passengers from Parwan to Kabul and back. The Taliban were always searching for people like my father who worked with private organizations and the government. One of their victims that day was my father who was captured by the Taliban on our way to Kabul. They stopped our car and immediately, my father and his friend figured out what was about to happen. My father and his friend told me not to talk and to deny I was my father’s son. They captured my father and took him away.

I cried a lot after the Taliban took my father. They took everything they could find, including my laptop which had pictures of our family, including my father. My father’s friend told me to stay in Kabul in a hotel that he knew and wait for him as he went to check the situation. Few days later, he came to the hotel, and told me that my mother’s decision was that I had to leave Afghanistan because it was only a matter of time before the Taliban figured out the connection. Noor Ali, the driver, was to arrange everything about my departure.

Journey to Indonesia

Noor Ali found an agent who would take me out of Afghanistan. On March 2015, I left Afghanistan and two days after, I arrived in India. From there, I flew by air to Malaysia. I was in Malaysia for a few weeks and in April, I arrived in Indonesia, Pekanbaru city. The journey to Malaysia was by plane but from Malaysia to Jakarta, Indonesia, it was through walking, boats, and cars. After 10 days journey, I arrived in Jakarta where I registered with UNHCR.

Life in Indonesia

After registering with UNHCR, I moved to Bogor where most of the Afghan refugees were living, and I lived there for about a year. While living in Bogor, a city close to Jakarta, I attended English Language and Bahasa Indonesia classes. After about a year in Bogor, I ran out of money. So, I went to the UNHCR and requested shelter and support. They accepted me in the shelter for under-aged 18 years old people. When I turned 18, I was removed from the shelter. From there, I went to live on the streets in front of the UNHCR office in Jakarta for some months. Some of my friends offered to help me, and I became roommates with them while I was in Bogor. I lived with them for around six months. Then afterwards, I went to a place called Kalideres, an old building that was once a military school. I went there because I heard that UNHCR or IOM will help the refugees who need support. In Kalideres, we had no electricity, no water, no room or furniture and the roof was broken. While I was there, Indonesian people, mostly, brought us food and water even when we had no aids from UNHCR and IOM. Some people volunteered to teach refugee kids in Kalideres. We learnt they were from a university; I was assisting them as well. Fortunately, in 2019, they offered me a scholarship to the university. Since then, I have been living in the university’s dormitory while majoring in Hospitality Management.

My Purpose

It is my dream to meet my family and help them get out of the bad situation in Afghanistan. Since the Taliban took over the country, the situation has only become more dire. I want to live in a country where there is peace. I want to help the community and be a useful person. I want to be hospitable and be able to serve people. I once did a one-month internship at an Indonesian coffeeshop, and I started liking the art of making coffee and tasting it. Hopefully, one day, I will have my own coffee shop and put a smile on people’s face and make their day.