Dozens of Sacramento children are stranded in Afghanistan. We must help them return home

There are dozens of Sacramento children trapped in Afghanistan. They need our help.

Over the past month, The Bee’s Sawsan Morrar, Jason Pohl and Renée Byer have been working with Sacramento-area school districts, congressional leaders and affected families to try and piece together just how many members of our community are now trapped in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.

What they’ve reported is heartbreaking. Local school districts estimate that at least 24 students from 19 families are stranded in Afghanistan — many from San Juan Unified. With U.S. troops fully withdrawn, the unlucky families who were not already in transit are now in hiding.

Taliban control of the Kabul airport has thrown the possibility of catching a flight into shambles. It has also become a grave security risk after ISIS suicide bombers attacked the airport last month, killing nearly 200 people, including 13 U.S. military members.

Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee of Roseville, an Oakmont High School graduate, was one of the victims. Her family said she took immense pride in their rescue mission in Afghanistan. Helping the stranded Sacramento families is one way we can honor her memory.

The Bee spoke with an Ethel I. Baker Elementary School family that made numerous trips to the Kabul airport to try and escape in recent weeks. The mother said she had even been caught in the crossfire between Taliban and U.S. forces.

Deep distrust of the new Taliban regime, which has a long history of oppressing women and girls, has paralyzed the families who were left behind, Morrar and Pohl wrote. Fleeing across the Pakistan border may be their only viable option, but it would be a perilous journey.

These Sacramento families, our neighbors, are now trapped in a nightmarish diplomatic haystack, thousands deep. It is incumbent on us to do everything we can to help our fellow Sacramentans get home safely.

These children do not deserve the seismic disruption taking place in their young lives. None of them were alive on 9/11 or when the U.S. began the failed 20-year war. They were simply visiting loved ones — as all families do during summer break. Some of the trips were an emergency because a family member was experiencing a health crisis, The Bee reported.

Now their lives are totally upended. They could be casualties of the miscalculations and false hopes President Biden placed in the flimsy Afghan government that our country spent years propping up.

Every Sacramentan has a moral obligation to leave no stone unturned. Contact every single California congressional representative — Republican or Democrat — and implore them to help locate these families and get them safely out of Afghanistan. Rep. Ami Bera, D-Elk Grove, created a form on his website to collect information about anyone stranded in Afghanistan who needs help. Use it.

Write letters to our federal representatives. Tell them about the Sacramento families. Help them become more than just data points in a vast tally of people left behind.

Contact the State Department. Contact the Department of Education. Contact local advocacy groups such as World Relief Sacramento.

Our region must rally around these families and do everything we can to help bring them home. They are an important piece of our community and we must support them in this extraordinary moment of need.

This story was originally published September 9, 2021 at 5:00 AM.