textile Afghan Outreach Project

Since August 2021, more than 75,000 Afghans fled the Taliban and resettled in the United States. Among these refugees are several judges and lawyers.

In 2022, SABA San Diego launched an Afghan Outreach Project designed to support these individuals in their efforts to make connections and find employment. In contrast to scholarship and fellowship projects that are currently being developed by other groups, we are focused on securing entry-level legal sector positions to provide a starting point for refugee-lawyers.

Current Chair:
Arwa Zakir Kakavand

Past Chairs:
Maryam Baqi, February 2022 – July 2022
Mytili Bala, July 2022

Our approach

Our immediate priority is to assist refugee-lawyers in San Diego in securing meaningful employment in the legal sector as case assistants, file clerks, or legal secretaries at law firms, non-profits, and educational institutions. We pair each person with a mentor, help update CVs and reference lists, search job boards, schedule mock interviews, and reach out to our networks to find and create opportunities. For Afghan refugee-lawyers outside San Diego, we connect them with mentors from other SABA chapters who can assist with the job search process.

Through our ongoing efforts, we have learned the landscape of refugee assistance programs and recognize the extraordinary challenges of finding housing and employment in three short months after arriving to a new place without family ties or networks. Even for refugees with job-ready skills and work authorization, the challenges can be daunting.

Making a difference will require employers to lead by creating roles for refugee-lawyers and accelerating the hiring timeline to respond to their financial realities. The individuals in our network are bright, highly skilled, fluent in English, extremely hardworking, and eager to learn. They will add value to your organization and to our legal community.

Our educational mission

Beyond addressing the immediate needs of resettled Afghan judges and lawyers, SABA San Diego seeks to learn from their stories to foster dialogue and exchange. Through virtual presentations, we aim to provide refugee-lawyers with a basic introduction to the state and federal court system and explore the life of a civil or criminal case. We hope that in the future, we can also host events to learn from our Afghan lawyer counterparts how best to uphold the rule of law.

Partners and resources

  • Affiliated SABA chapters
  • International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ)
  • National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ)
  • Upwardly Global
  • Resettlement agencies and their volunteer partners (including Helping El Cajon Refugees and License to Freedom in San Diego)
  • San Diego Refugee Forum
  • Friends of the Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan
  • ECE, Inc.

Get involved

Click Get Involved to start the process!

Get involved

Contact [email protected] if you are:

  • A law student or lawyer interested in volunteering to:
    • Practice English with a refugee-lawyer
    • Search job boards for entry-level legal sector roles
    • Help update CVs, review cover letters, or assist with interview prep
  • An employer seeking to hire a resettled Afghan judge or lawyer
  • An Afghan judge or lawyer who speaks English and seeks job assistance
  • A SABA chapter president interested in joining our efforts

Related Pages

AfghanEvac

Our friends at AfghanEvac — a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity that built and administers the mechanism for cooperation between U.S. government agencies and non-governmental groups working to ensure the United States keeps its promise to our Afghan allies — have launched a lawyers list. If you are an immigration attorney, or a lawyer in any other field who cares about these issues and wants to help, they want you on it. The legal fights ahead are only getting bigger — from courthouse arrests to the mass hearing dockets to the cases of people like Nazeer Paktiawal — and they are building the bench to meet them. Sign up today and share it with every attorney you know who might answer the call.

Here's how to plug in:

Battle Buddies

Battle Buddies volunteers with Afghan allies

Battle Buddies is a joint initiative of AfghanEvac and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) that pairs U.S. veterans and frontline civilians with Afghan wartime allies going through their immigration processes here in America — because no one who stood with us in war should have to stand alone in court.

We show up with our Afghan allies to witness and affirm that our promises still stand.

Afghan Refugee Empowerment Fund (AREF)

Afghan Refugee Empowerment Fund San Diego logo

The Afghan Refugee Empowerment Fund (AREF) is a San Diego 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to helping Afghan refugees achieve economic empowerment and access to justice.

Support their work: Donate to AREF.