Your contribution can help Safa, a 26 years old woman, escape from danger, finally find peace and security after over a decade of hardships, and join her brother Muhammed Yassin! The two siblings are currently living alone, separated from all of their family members. Safa lives in hiding in Iraqi Kurdistan and Muhammed Yassin, in Calgary, Canada. Let’s bring Safa to safety and reunite them!
Visit our website (in English, French, Catalan, Spanish, Italian and German) to know more about Safa, her support group and the chain of solidarity in movement since 2018 that you can join today, by donating and sharing around you and on your social media!
Safa and her brother, Muhammed Yassin in Turkey in 2018.
This fundraising is the last missing piece to Safa’s peace
Thanks to the support of a group of Canadian citizens who are sponsoring Safa and to the sponsoring NGO Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), Safa is very close from obtaining a visa to Calgary, where her brother found refuge last year. The Calgary Group 1727 and the NGO have prepared all the administrative documents. They are offering protection and asylum to Safa and will ensure her support and integration!
We reached the minimum deposit required by the canadian governement (19.101 CAD + platform fees) needed to get Safa to security and reunite with her brother! THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts for making this dream come true. This achievement is yours as much as it is ours.
We still have 2 weeks to go with the campaign. We will keep it opened until the last minute, because any additional donations would be of great support. We are aware that the amount required by the government is minimum and we have been advised to try and gather more to ward off possible inflation since the process to get Safa to Canada might take more than a year.
We will transfer the required amount of 19.100 CAD to my sponsors in Calgary. They will account for expenditures to the NGO Mennonite Central Committee. The latter will be providing accounts to the Canadian government.
From now on, the review phase of the file by the Canadian government begins. Between two and four years of waiting are calculated before Safa does not obtain the visa. During this time, and thanks to the invaluable support we are receiving, Safa could progress by acquiring the required level of English and take the preparatory course to access the Canadian university or find a job as soon as she arrives.
We are consulting to make it clear what the exact cost would be and the possibility of applying for grants to do so. All funds raised from now until the end of the campaign will be used for this preparation.
Your financial support means safety for Safa
Safa is a survivor. Since 2013, she has been repeatedly displaced and faced incommensurable violence. The 26-year-old currently goes underground to escape from a violent man, living in hiding in a monastery in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The only thing separating Safa from living in a peaceful country, also respectful of women's rights, is this crowdfunding. By raising this sum, Safa will be able to obtain a visa for Canada.
Safa was 14 years old when the war started in her country. She has undergone bombing and abuse by the authorities, witnessed the kidnapping and torture of her brother, faced mistreatments, gender-based violence including several forced-marriages attempts, and social exclusion in the countries where she intended to find shelter. Some of these violations were faced while living with her brother, who brought her some form of relief, support and love. But along this dire path, the siblings were forced to part for safety reasons, leaving both of them alone, without a familiar shoulder to rely on in dark nights.
For her, resettlement in Canada would mean a world of change; it is an opportunity to restore her life, complete her studies at university, pursue the career of her dreams, a career that would be impossible as a vulnerable refugee in Kurdistan, and reconnect with her brother.
We hope that our call will touch enough people to get Safa out of the danger that pursues her, to bring her back a breath of life and at least one member of her family,
Safa and Muhammed Yassin are such beautiful persons, kind hearted, benevolent, funny, and always ready to support and contribute to the society they are in. Since we met them six years ago, we are doing everything possible to get to the day they will experience peace and security. This is us writing to you: Xènia, George and Laurence, from Spain, Scotland and France.
Many thanks for supporting us by donating and sharing our dream!
From up left to bottom right: Laurence, Xènia, Yassin, Safa and George in 2019, in an online meeting.
A humanitarian worker in need of humanitarian support
Throughout her repeated displacements, Safa has volunteered with charities. We met her in an peace-building and education-oriented NGO, when she was in charge of schooling and contributing to the education of refugee children living in informal camps. She also coordinated cultural and pedagogical projects.
In recent years, not being able to move around freely has prevented her from pursuing her humanitarian activities. Safa (who taught herself English!) focuses on improving her English skills and is now a popular arabic teacher for foreigners at the temporary shelter where she is hiding out. She also concentrates on art, helping her and those around her to express themselves, and has demonstrated her talent as an actress, director and playwright.
Safa volunteering in an educational project in Lebanon in 2018
Safa used to dream of becoming a psychologist. A dream that has been dashed by the study ban she faces and could finally revive in Canada!
After discovering her passion and interest in theater, she is planning to keep on doing theater in Canada as well. Moreover she aims to study Environmental Science & Sustainability to have the ability to be an effective part of protecting the earth from the climate change phenomena, and strive to make art as inspirational to save the planet. Without the earth, no art and no theater will be possible.
If we raise more than the minimum required by the Canadian government, it will be used to help Safa resume her studies!
For our kind European donors, it's more economic to donate in Canadian dollars (CAD) than in Euros!
1 CAD = 0,67 euro
200 CAD = 135 euros
300 CAD = 202 euros
500 CAD = 338 euros
742 CAD = 500 euros
1,483 CAD = 1000 euros
Your support means more than you know! Thank you very much!
Xènia, George and Laurence with Safa and Muhammed Yassin
