Khaled Hosseini supports Sirajuddin
Completed shelter now occupied by Sirajuddin and his family. Photo by UNHCR/F. Hamdard/2013.
Khaled Hosseini set up The Khaled Hosseini Foundation, a non-profit organization providing shelters to refugees of Afghanistan. Sirajuddin, a refugee living in one of those shelters, tells his story.
“Fearing abuse from the Taliban, I sold my land and fled to Baimoghly village,” Sirajuddin recounts. Clashes erupted in Takhte Ishan village between the Taliban and government forces that led to the death of one woman and two children in the area. Like many rural Afghans, their land was the only source of income because farming and keeping livestock was a way of life. “I had no choice but to sell everything in order to survive.”
When they arrived in Baimoghly, the family was forced to live in poor conditions in an abandoned house. Sirrajudin eventually bought a piece of land from his life’s savings.
“Now my family feels secure because we have our own home and access to facilities like health, electricity, drinking water, and we can easily access work in the lands of the host community.” As Sirajuddin explains, “My family is very happy to live in a safe place where there are no threats and disruption from the Taliban.”
