The Afghan Digest

The Afghan Digest was born out of Operation Snow Leopard's mission to resettle at-risk Afghans. Snow Leopard's director, Karen Kraft, thought we needed a voice to tell the stories of the people we were working with.

I set up the Digest on Substack in December of 2021 and we published our first issue on 10 January 2022. We have continuously published the Digest since its inception and have so far accrued:

• 184 Daily Evacuation Briefs
• 11 Whispers Intel Analysis Briefs
• 10 Anatomy of a Crisis Research Papers

While we do assemble an aggregate of daily news relevant to the safety and security of our primary audience, we are not a news site. Our main focus is collecting human intelligence from an established network in order to provide daily security tips to our readers so they can avoid risking their safety in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Feedback from our readers and partner organizations has proven the value of this service multiple times in the first half of 2022.

Along the way, we discovered that many of the at-risk Afghans who Operation Snow Leopard was able to resettle in other countries needed a means of supporting themselves and their families. Most had arrived with visas that precluded them from working in the local economy. By bringing them on as temporary employees, we were able to avoid any trouble with local authorities while also providing employment and the ability to support themselves and their families. The sense of pride we have been able to provide people whose entire world came crashing down last August cannot be adequately described.

For now, we need your help to reach our goal of raising $75,000.00 to hire an additional 30 staff members for the remainder of the year. We pay our staff members a $500.00 per month flat rate and in most cases, this is enough to support a family of 6 people with lodging, food, and incidentals. In return, the staff will assist us with finding new stories, developing a podcast, and performing the different translations needed to allow all to view our content.

An ancillary benefit for our staff will be work experience for their resumes so that when they do reach their final destinations for resettlement, they will be able to demonstrate their work ethic.

Our initial sustainability plan called for charging a subscription to view content not included in the Daily Evacuation Brief. However, we realized early on that charging a fee for our content would limit the dissemination of information and the bulk of our subscriber base consists of at-risk Afghans who could not afford a monthly subscription. Therefore, we decided to offer the Digest as a completely free service.

We know the resettlement process cannot continue indefinitely. We are seeking donations to get us to the end of 2022. We will then take stock of the situation and make a determination on whether we will continue publishing in 2023.

I hope you will take the time to check out The Afghan Digest and see the kind of work we are engaged in. Feel free to share it with others who may have a stake in the deteriorating situation in the country.

As a thank-you to our donors, we are in the process of creating a digital Afghanistan Cookbook that will be distributed when ready.