Afghan refugees need your help getting to Bard College

Dear Editor,

When Kabul fell to the Taliban on August 15, 2021, New Yorkers opened up their hearts to support Afghan refugees fleeing violence, giving some an opportunity to settle right here in the Hudson Valley.

One of the area’s most generous actors was Bard College, which promised full scholarships to 177 Afghan students, with at least 66 students successfully arriving to campus last January. Yet, while we are a mere two months away from the first anniversary of the fall of Kabul and the beginning of the fall semester, not every Afghan promised a scholarship has made it to Bard. Some Afghans are still trapped in limbo in the Emirates Humanitarian City in Abu Dhabi, despite having fled Kabul with valid visa referrals on U.S.-sponsored evacuation flights last October.

Among Bard’s incoming students awaiting visa processing is a young woman who attended the valley’s deeply rooted Camp Rising Sun program, which has been welcoming teenagers to Rhinebeck for more than 90 years to participate in its full-scholarship summer leadership program. This CRS alumna fled alone when she was 17, and is among several Afghans who worked for U.S.-sponsored programs in Afghanistan and were promised safety in return. These students have already missed a year of school. We must act now to ensure these students get to Bard before the fall semester.

Time is running out. Help support the right of Afghan women to pursue an education. Call your representatives and ask them to intervene and help these students get to Bard before August.

— Janessa Schilmoeller,

Washington, D.C.