Family Reunification
One of the members of our team, Amanda Hayden, connected with many refugees while living in Sweden. The things they shared broke her heart and helped her see the war and turmoil so many face today. These experiences inspired Amanda to give back and do what she could to help these refugees have a smoother transition, have educational and work opportunities, and, when possible, be reunited with family. One of the people Amanda met was Marzieh, and her story specifically inspired Beautiful Heart to find a way to help out.
In 2017, Beautiful Heart worked with local and international connections to help Marzieh’s family have access to a lawyer who could help her father make it to Germany to be reunited with Marzieh’s mother and siblings. After waiting over two years, her father did make it to Germany. In total, this journey and challenge has lasted over four years and continues. Although they are together in Germany, they are still trying to start a new life and continue to wait for final news that they can stay there in safety.
Marzieh was able to continue the journey and made it to a refugee camp in the north of Sweden. From there she moved between refugee camps until getting help from a local Swede to stay at her apartment for the summer in 2016. That’s when Amanda met Marzieh. They became fast friends and Amanda quickly noticed the beautiful and pure heart Marzieh has. Since this time, Marzieh has gained asylum and is safe to stay in Sweden. Along with being fluent in multiple other languages, she has learned Swedish and now has a job in Accounting.
More detail from Marzieh herself below:
“Dears who helped my family during this tough time,
We really appreciate your help and support. It means a lot to us. I always believe in people’s power. Humans without each other are nothing. I need you and another day you need me and so on. You don’t know what a big help it was. No one wants to be in a bad situation, no one wants to live in fear. I don’t know why I couldn’t see Afghanistan without war at all. Fear, stress, hunger, death, bombs, and frustration. The Taliban forced people to pay them money, they forced young men to join them—death or join the Taliban. My father was a teacher and worked in social work as well. They threatened him to leave his job, my uncles and cousin as well. One evening, my uncles were outside, and the Taliban surrounded and killed them. We were so lucky that my father wasn’t there, but we lost two of my uncles, my 20-year-old cousin, and my father’s cousin. We could not go to school as usual after that; we had to leave or else they would come and kill my father.
It was a long and dangerous journey along the horrible borders of Iran and Turkey. We were so scared, and money wasn’t enough. People don’t believe how strong they are in something until they do that thing. Being in a small boat at sea that could drown and was full of more than 49 people taught me this. There were many days we didn’t take a shower, didn’t sleep, couldn’t go to the toilet, and went hungry. What an awful feeling it was to be so dirty and smelly.” - Marzieh
