• Campaign Fundraiser: Provide Essential Aid for Refugees in Turkey

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Once the cameras shuttered after the peak of the refugee crisis in 2015, worldwide attention shifted. However, the flux of migrants that had the EU declare an emergency situation did not disappear. The conditions forcing them to flee have not changed. Instead, they have been demonized through the years, faced discrimination, harassment, and even death. Policy-makers have created entire platforms to make it significantly difficult for refugees to access to basic needs and rights, like housing and education.

Many don’t realize that the journey from Turkey to Greece is extremely dangerous. Greek authorities are currently under investigation for allegations made by asylum seekers and humanitarian organizations, who’ve provided credible evidence that Greek authorities are forcing migrants to return to Turkey. Greece continues to deny these claims, but these actions continue to violate international law. Josoor is a member of a coalition of humanitarian organizations that are collecting evidence about the “pushbacks” to present to the EU Human Rights Commission. These “pushbacks," as they are called, experience unimaginable conditions. Pushbacks have faced major human rights violations - including unlawful detention, abuse, and torture - at the hands of Greek authorities. In addition, pushbacks have their valuable possessions taken, such as shoes, jackets, backpacks, and phones.

Our campaign seeks to supply aid to these pushbacks and other refugees who are experiencing economic hardship. At the basic level, a care package can help sustain a family to nourish themselves and keep themselves clean. Every human being deserves this dignity.

We’ve partnered with Josoor*, an international solidarity organization for refugees, who will help us distribute these care packages to people on the ground in refugee camps in Turkey. Afghans Empowered will be collecting all donations and sending it directly to Josoor to purchase the care packages for distribution.

Here is what your donation (of any amount) can help purchase:

General NFI package: (toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, moisturizer, deodorant, disinfectant, disposable masks, cloth masks, detergent, comb, towels, bandaids) $20.56 USD

An extra $5.20 covers the cost of the Women’s Basic Care package, which includes pads.

Food for 1 person per month: (rice, pasta, oil, beans, lentils, canned vegetables, canned tuna, fresh seasonal vegetables, citrus fruits, salt and sugar, tea, milk, nuts and seeds, eggs, and dates) $32.12 USD

Food for family of 4 per month: (the previously listed grocery items but in higher quantities to accommodate the family) $56.81 USD

Clothing for men, women, and children: (socks, underwear, shoes, long-sleeved shirts, sweatpants, jackets, pullover, jeans, skirts) $41.18 USD

Clothing for babies: (onesies): $19.29 USD

NFI for pregnant women/babies: (diapers, wet wipes, baby powder, moisturizer, diaper cream, vitamin D, prenatal vitamins, postpartum pads) $66.44 USD

We welcome donations of any amount. Everything adds up and helps us provide for people in need.

Awareness campaign from 2/26-3/19
Help us get the word out!

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a collaboration by Full Potential
& Afghans Empowered

Here's why we're doing this:

Refugees were never anything new to me. In fact, I already likened the word refugee to Afghan since my parents and all the adults in my family had been refugees, meaning that it was somehow so normal to our culture, heritage, and identity. It shouldn't have been. But it was and it is.

My family crossed to Europe during the migration crisis, using the same dangerous routes,the same makeshift, unsecure boats, and hoping for the same outcomes as those who crossed. My cousins, a brother and sister, were separated in turkey, and it didn't dawn on me till later that the reason i kept hearing about amid’s (cousin) continuous failed attempts to “go to Greece” was because Greece failed to recognize him as an asylum seeker, and kept pushing him back (violation of international law). This meant he risked his life over and over again, losing contact with my family weeks and months at a time. In the meantime, my female cousin crossed her journey alone, and i cant begin to think what a lone female can face in the hands of smugglers, as she was reliant on those services to get across.

So yes, this campaign is personal. But its personal because i see my cousins, my family, as humans, as everyone else does. But the word refugee makes them unhuman. And i know them enough to know, and like I know from my mom and dad, that if things “didn't go wrong” they’d never dreamed of leaving home. My dad left during the soviet war, thinking he’d linger in pakistan till the end of the war, and same for my mom. 30 years later, they havent stepped foot back in their homeland. Refugees have no choice, but its so hard to drive that point when theres such disgusting rhetoric out there that marginalizes them.

When I decided to study International Relations, I had an idea of what i’d get in to. But wow is it so fucking hard to sit in a class, and think politically, and not humanitarilly/ethically(call it whatever), if the class has something to do with US/Western politics to foreign regions.

To sit there and listen to a former US State dept career diplomat, who was sent in the 1970’s to conspire with pakistan to train Mujahedeens, and indoctrinate them with extreme islamic views, to fight across the border in Afg, setting the catalyst for 4 decades of instability. And then the same man to be the one on the ground in Libya in 2011, firsthand witnessing the protests, supporting a US intervention, refusing to confirm or deny whether the US ever intended to kill Gadafi, but also failing to admit the US didn't understand rebel groups enough to trust them, all for him to come home to his safe soil, while Libyans toiled from the fallout of the events. And to be expected to not feel personally appalled by this white man’s non chalant attitude about US policy, like it was set in scripture and stone. That was an eye opening day.

And you might think “well duh where the fuck have you been, Mursel. Havent you seen the real picture” , yes I have. I wasnt ignorant to it, but I felt like if I couldn't tell a man off like the old white guy in my class, for his role in western democracies placating instability, then maybe I could do it in a better, productive, eloquent way. I was sick of already seeing through every flaw this man, and so many men and women represent in the West, with just glimpses of his tall tales of moral crimes. I started to wish others would see what I saw and heard in people like him. I reached out to Full Potential because i felt this conversation, passion, anger, and hatred for manipulators, wouldnt be safe in the hands of hegemony. It needed to begin and be felt by those with ties to a region, like me. As a team, i felt we would be the best to implore our audiences, of all backgrounds and nationalities, to take a stand against what is unfolding in Europe.

What this campaign is about is, is really a pushback against everything we’re taught to believe in. The rhetorics we’re sold, it's all BS. We are used every day by government powers, who struggle to maintain control from their own doings.

We are the products of domestic and foreign policies that pit us against one another, the policies that breed ignorant populism, nationalism, and racism in this country and Europe.

The migration crisis should make us wake up, and realize, we think our leaders could never do us wrong; that the situation is so seriously a crisis in the first place that Europe is doing everything it can. Thats not true. Protecting human rights, international law, its all bullshit ideas touted by the West, with very little substance to practice. The old liberal internationalism order is bullshit. Until we unveil the curtains of the West, the ones who play important roles as “keepers of peace and democracy” but lay low while authoritarian regimes squash their people, picking and choosing allies and adversaries to support, we will never truly understand that we are all affected by these powers. Our friends and families have all in one way or another been affected. And when the EU,  a symbol of multinational unity, utterly fails and allows for its nations to be infiltrated by the kinds of rhetorics that the post WW2 avowed would never reach the continent, that was bullshit too.

The campaign is about making the argument, the one that I want everyone to see. It is the idea of power in the hands of governance, from left to right of the spectrum, that over and over again fails its people. It is the powers of governance that perpetuate the fleeing of millions of people, crossing from the belly of one beast into the belly of another. It is the point that the big bad monster (the refugees you may or may not see) are just pawns to the new narratives of Europe. It is about justifying mismanagement through this rhetoric, and garnering support from the optimists, but also fueling domestic pushback from right wing groups that are emboldening hateful ideologies. And though there are many that are using EU policy to advocate for human rights and pro refugees, I think Europe needs to be discussed in terms of its crimes, wrongdoings, and mistakes since the crisis. This isn’t over, and I really fear we’ll only see it get worse, as new political parties shift dynamics in parliaments. People will remain ignorant and unmotivated to question authority if all they are fed is propaganda, and though we aren’t headed to another facist state like hitler’s WW2, I fear the new age populism will be extremely divisive and damaging, and those who will hurt the most are refugees and minorities. It’s time to see it now than 10 years later, and see it in action as it happens so that we don't make the kinds of mistakes that are irreversible, with damages that are irreparable. It’s one of those things that needs to stay alive in our conversations. we cant let the distractions of the 21st century fool us into thinking we humans are beyond such terrible things such as facism, xenophobia, coup causing, war crimes, etc. its happening all around us. Maybe by just talking about it, we’d inspire the next resistance leader of our future, a person who’d later carry on the campaign we began, and turn it into a movement that’ll be written in the books. (I'm hopeful)

One day there might be more weirdos like me that obsess over these things. And if I could make one person as obsessed as i am, to always talk about it, to push others to talk about it, to exercise my civil freedoms that privilege me over others, then i’d be happy.

In summary: Migration is a necessity because of instability, the West sucks for all the crap it’s doing, people are suffering, Europe should back the f up, Europeans need to stop the government mismanagement, and the SWANA region shall be liberated from all its chains one day for the people who’ve been subjugated for too long.