Few people reach the stage in their lives that Suraya did in 1993 – one wherein a secure lifestyle in the USA is abandoned in preference for a knife-edge existence running bundles of cash dollars, aid and, most crucially of all, hope, into some of the most remote and war-ravaged villages on earth – in Afghanistan. Suraya Sadeed reached that point in her life by accident; she was propelled to take on her life mission by circumstances beyond her control. Yet at the same time business acumen and her innate generosity of spirit meant that she was qualified to take on the punishing, yet extraordinary fulfilling humanitarian work. In her words:
“Looking back, it has been a wild experience and, being an Afghan-American woman trying to enact change in Afghanistan, perhaps I should have expected as much. Through the hardships faced along the way, I found a sense of strength and determination to not only overcome the obstacles, but to so with pride and conviction. ”
Suraya was born and raised in Kabul, Afghanistan and immigrated to the United States in 1982 and became a successful business woman. During the height of the Afghan Civil War (1993), Suraya returned to Afghanistan and was shocked by the horrific conditions of children and the destruction of her homeland. That same year, she established a non-profit organization; Help the Afghan Children, Inc. Since then, Suraya's efforts in providing humanitarian aid, medical care, education, and hope against seemingly insurmountable odds in some of the most inhospitable conditions imaginable, have directly benefited an estimated 1.7 million Afghan children and their families.