KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Seeing the humanitarian crisis unfold in Afghanistan can be overwhelming for most people, but for those who are connected to the country, it's pain and chaos.
"I come from a family of immigrants, so all the refugees who are coming in to the west, we're seeing our lives being repeated," said Roya Ibrahimi Zaidi, who lives in Olathe. "We're seeing it all play out all over again."
Zaidi's family fled Afghanistan in the 1980s and settled in the Kansas City area. Her extended family escaped in the '90s after the Taliban took over.
"That struggle is real because those people who had high-profile jobs, who are journalists, held government positions, who were professors, are going to have to come to America and start over again," said Zaidi, who was born in Kansas.
Zaidi said her father did what he had to do. Although he was a teacher in Afghanistan, he drove taxis in the United States. In 2002, he became a linguist and cultural adviser for the government after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
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Zaidi said she is worried that the Hazara, an ethnic minority group her family is part of, will be targeted again as they were in the '90s.
Wanting to connect with her family's home country, Zaidi became the head of the online department at Tolo News in Afghanistan in 2014.
"Basically my job was to help expand their online presence," Zaidi said.
Much of the younger population, according to Zaidi, grew up with social media and access to the outside world because of the internet. She celebrated Women's Day with her coworkers in the Tolo newsroom. They enjoyed sporting events and nights out with friends – just like everyone else.
Now, she's terrified those freedoms will be taken away from the millions who remain in Afghanistan.
"Former colleagues of mine are being hunted down for whatever reason," Zaidi said. "You can just think about a million things of why Taliban are looking for people who are high profile."
Zaidi and other grassroots activists are doing anything they can, including calling lawmakers and immigration attorneys, to connect people in Kabul with someone in the U.S.
"We're trying to find connections on the ground to get the people who have at least the documentation to come to the United States," Zaidi said.
She said messages pour in by the dozens, going to sleep and waking up to voicemails from colleagues and people they know.
"There's gunfire. There was an attack that happened in Kabul. I'm getting those voice messages as soon as it happens, frantic messages asking and begging desperately for help," Zaidi said.
And Roya said anyone can help in a small way by texting 'CRISIS' to 52886, which redirects to a Mobilize 4 Change website.
"It's an automatic message that's sent to your phone. You click on it and it literally takes less than two minutes to fill out the form and there's already a message populated there," Zaidi said, "to push our senators and state legislators to please, let's do something, these are our allies."
She also encouraged people to reach out to organizations in KC, like Della Lamb, who help refugees resettle.
Jewish Vocational Services is also helping.
