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Newsletter October 2021
President’s Message How We Can Help During my travels in the 1990s, I found myself at one point in the northwest of Pakistan, an area that Acienit id quatustThe ibustrum eseborders Afghanistan. city of Abbottabad, later gaining infamy as the location of Osama bin qui dem velles pro te que nis niLaden’s hideout, was a base for my travels in the area. At the time, northwest Pakistan was filled with maxim illaborae in et resectat Afghan refugees who remained thereetto escape the civil war that followed the battle with the Soviets. es as endus que esti ut omnienThe refugees’ presence was most evident in the market in Abbottabad, where hundreds—perhaps thousands—of Afghan refugees, desperately impoverished, could be seen every day.
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Now, thirty years later: another Afghan refugee crisis. Just over a month ago, the United States and its allies completed a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after being there for two decades. The images of Afghan citizens desperately crowding the airport in Kabul are searing. Overall, according to the Associated Press, nearly 130,000 people were airlifted out of Kabul “in one of the largest mass evacuations in US history.” Many others fled across land borders. Those refugees are heading in all directions. Many will go to Pakistan, some of whom will likely end up in Abbottabad. Others will end up in the United States, and some in our region of Pennsylvania. As I watched the news stories about the evacuations from Kabul, I reached out to Mahfuzul Khondaker (CRJ) to see what APSCUF-KU could do to help. Mahfuzul, as some of you may know, is the vice-president of the Muslim Association of the Lehigh Valley (MALV). MALV is working with the Bethany United Church of Christ in Bethlehem to provide services to the refugees. And for us? It turns out there’s a lot we can do. The refugees will be arriving in the area with almost nothing, having left everything behind in Afghanistan. Donations of household furniture, kitchen items, cleaning supplies—even cars!—are all being accepted by MALV, Bethany UCC, and other groups working with the refugees. Monetary donations are also being accepted. For now, APSCUF-KU is going to focus on a clothing drive. Items of clothing for all ages, but particularly for children and teenagers, will be accepted at the APSCUF-KU office in Old Main 203A, or in my office in Rohrbach Library 11. There will be a donation box outside of the door of each location from now until Thanksgiving. During the last 18 months, APSCUF-KU has been focused on the coronavirus and on retrenchment. But I also know that this organization I’ve been a member of for 24 years always has the capacity to give to the community. If you have extra items of new or gently-used clothing, please consider dropping them off at one of the locations listed above. If you have other items, contact me or Mahfuzul directly, and we will figure out where to donate them. Thank you all for considering helping these people in need. President, APSCUF-KU.