With the world in turmoil, the news tends to move from hotspot to hotspot and we sometimes forget that need, suffering and peril don’t expire just because the hot story of the day has moved on. I know this doesn’t sound a bit like me, but I want to introduce you to someone who needs your attention and help. I’m going to step back and let him tell his own story. I know, that’s not like me either but this is important.
Following is part of the Rescue Plan Story from Timothy Ham.
Women and children are suffering in Ukraine and Afghanistan and are subjected to crimes of war and atrocities in other countries around the world. How does an artist reflect the pain of this? The painting “Afghan Mother”, so deeply in pain, is created by a gifted Afghan artist. Abdul (name disguised to protect him and his family) continues to work even though his life is endangered by the Taliban just for the act of painting beautiful portraits and showing his country’s agony with his work.
Because March 8 is UN International Women’s Day, I want to make you aware of the struggle to bring this talented young man and his family here to the Pacific Northwest. I first met Abdul while working in Afghanistan in 2009. He was an Art Instructor for the teenage son of one of my senior staff. I was contacted by Abdul shortly after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021 and banned all art of “living things”. Abdul had to close his art school and art gallery and was in hiding, having been threatened by the Taliban for his art. He was seeking a way to escape. I’ve made every effort to bring him and his family to safety. We’ve found him a position at the Tacoma School of the Arts high school, but now we need your help in telling the story. His life and the lives of his family are at stake.
With the help of the Artistic Freedom Initiative of New York, immigration attorneys are finalizing his application for a US visa. The family needs to get out of Afghanistan and make it to a US Embassy for a visa interview and then to the US to settle in Tacoma. We need funding to help in the travel, hotel costs for the expected waiting period, to settle the family in Tacoma and to fund his Fellowship at the School. We established a Go Fund Me account with the hopes that others will support Abdul’s desire to once again paint, to teach and to share his story.
While activists here in America can’t give away our rights and freedoms fast enough.
As the old saying goes: You don’t know what you’ll miss until it’s gone.
Sure, Brian, and that’s an interesting observation but your rights are not infringed by helping an individual family escape with their lives. Indeed, there’s quite a lot in the Bible about doing that very thing. I have a relative who’s been a top official in the CIA and he’s donated, so it’s probably ok.
Who is Timothy Ham? This sounds like a great undertaking but I’d like more information.
Thanks.
Carol,
Thanks for asking!
Tim is a retired business executive in the Northwest who assisted the US State Department’s economic development efforts in Jordan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. He met Abdul in 2009 and has agreed to help him after the Taliban took over the country in 2021, and with friends supported the family, set up a Go Fund Me account with 100% of the funds to pay for his visa, family living expenses while in hiding, travel, resettlement in the US and to fund the school’s fellowship. Tim lives near Seattle and his two married children and five grandchildren.
If you have ideas or are interested in helping, let me know.