SERV – Online Presence

Salford Edmund Rice Volunteers and St Sebastian’s Brothers’ Community News

The drop-in service continues for refugees and asylum seekers on Mondays at SERV.  Clients are helped with services such as applications for housing, benefits, the asylum process, accessing health services, applying for driving licenses and much more by the brothers and volunteers. English classes have resumed and are being taught by volunteer staff.

The situation in Afghanistan as witnessed by the mother of SERV’s close friend Farzya Olker. Farzya was forced to flee from Afghanistan some 10 years ago due to her work with an aid agency. She arrived illegally in the UK, 8 months pregnant having been in a sealed container with little oxygen for 5 days. Her baby survived. She sought help as an asylum seeker at SERV and is now safely settled in the UK with her family. Farzya continues to work in afghan refugee settlement programs in London.

 “I write with the deepest sorrow and sadness about our beautiful, landlocked country of Afghanistan, surrounded by skyscraper mountains where it could be known as the Switzerland of Central Asia, that is, if there were peace. Although Afghanistan had been struggling with the instabilities of civil war, poverty and infrastructural problems, for us, before, we could see that there was light at the end of tunnel, a light that kept us hopeful and be determined. That was before.

However, all of sudden, everything has changed in the blink of an eye. The dark, evil force that is the Taliban has taken over our prosperity, our education and our efforts at improvement. When I was a younger Afghan citizen, I already experienced the first Taliban regime. My memories are hazy from that time so I can’t effectively express the images I retain but what I can say for sure is that I witnessed true scenes of horror and I have heard the stories. The scale of intense fear and danger brought by the Taliban is beyond imagination.

Currently, the people in Afghanistan are struggling against torture, hunger, terror and violence against women. The media informs us that Taliban leaders are establishing sharia law for females. On the other hand, to the general public they have declared some rules and regulations that particularly apply to our women. Those rules are as follows; young girls over 18 should get married, only then can they study. Widows aged up to 35 have to marry a Taliban soldier. Females are not allowed to wear high heels or any type of shoes that make noise on the streets because this is seen as too overtly sexual. Similarly, women are not allowed to dress up, display make-up or be seen to be well-groomed. All of these habits are construed by the Taliban to be demonstrations of evil spirits and are strictly forbidden.

We are no longer allowed to hold any public events or celebratory occasions at all. Music has died, our musical instruments are being destroyed, recording studios have been shut down.

On top of everything, poor people are being targeted. These poor people are forced to prepare meals for the Taliban every night. People who cannot even afford to feed themselves are being punished and made to find either food or money for the Taliban army. It has been reported that many village families have been forced to sell one of their children in order to save their others. How difficult must this be for any parent to sell his or her most loved child to strangers? This is the news we are receiving on a daily basis; it breaks our hearts and makes us cry and we pray for those innocent people who are the targets and victims of this horrific regime.’