9 Comments
founding

I've been trying to contribute using Venmo but get "Declined transaction from GoFundMe" (both on desktop and phone). One of the explanations said Venmo may be intercepting it thinking the transaction is fraudulent. The advice is to try again tomorrow. Stay tuned. Help is on the way!

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author

I saw that you succeeded.

I'll write privately, but ... thank you so much.

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founding

That was before! I was just able to succeed in this final push. Godspeed!

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Aug 20Liked by Claire Berlinski

I contributed last time and will make another contribution today. This family’s bravery has been rewarded with your friendship, Claire. They will have long, productive and happy lives thanks to you. As the proverb says, “he who saves a life saves the world.” You and your loyal readers have done precisely that.

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Thank you, WigWag. Mr. Rogers was not wrong when he said, "Look for the helpers." When the evil of the world threatens to overwhelm me, I think of the people who heard about this situation and immediately helped.

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By the way, Claire, HIAS, which I believe is the organization that is sponsoring this family in Canada does great work and is worthy of support itself. More on the organization can be found here,

https://hias.org/who/

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The organization is JIAS, but could HIAS be the parent organization?

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Aug 22Liked by Claire Berlinski

It is. The Canadian affiliate is called JIAS. See,

https://jiastoronto.org

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Aug 22·edited Aug 22Author

Oh, I'm very glad to know that, because I've always been aware of the HIAS and I know they have a good reputation. I just didn't make the connection. This makes sense. Everyone to whom we've spoken at JIAS has been simply wonderful. They understand the process completely, they've walked us through the daunting amount of paperwork (the Canadian government's vetting process for Afghans is extremely rigorous, as it should be, but it involves about a million highly detailed forms per family member. We would have had no idea how to fill them out without their help.) They've been very, very sensitive, too, to the emotional effects on the family of experiencing this long limbo period. They're very careful to explain every step of the process and to make sure we understand it and don't have unreasonable expectations. They've been great.

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