Reflecting on 2025: Compassion in Action, Even in Uncertain Times
Dear Friends,
Season’s Greetings from Aman Lara.
As we come to the end of the year, I want to express my sincere gratitude to you, our supporters, partners and community. Your trust in Aman Lara and your decision to stand with us, even in the face of extraordinary risk and displacement, have meant everything in a year marked by profound humanitarian need.
Throughout 2025, conflict and instability continued to upend lives across the globe. At the same time, charities and humanitarian organizations everywhere faced growing funding pressures and uncertainty. Like many organizations, Aman Lara experienced this firsthand. The conclusion of a major government-funded Afghan Safe Passage project required us to make difficult decisions, including reducing our core team. This painful transition meant saying goodbye to deeply committed colleagues who played an integral role in helping thousands of Afghan families reach safety.
Even as resources tightened, the needs before us did not diminish. Across Gaza, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other conflict-affected regions, individuals and families continued to seek protection. Many were women, youth, families, and LGBTQ+ individuals facing acute and escalating risk. Too often, demand far exceeded the available pathways, and we were forced to make heartbreaking choices about where to intervene.
In the face of these realities, we remained grounded in our mission—prioritizing the most urgent cases and directing every donation with care, responsibility, and impact. Your support allowed us to focus on what matters most: delivering coordinated, wraparound assistance that supports safety, dignity, and longer-term stability.
Turning compassion into action in 2025
Because of donors and partners like you, Aman Lara was able to respond when lives were on the line. Your support sustained the expert coordination, adaptability, and context-informed approach that has defined our work since 2021. It reflects the strength of the community and the belief that every contribution, when used thoughtfully, can create real and visible impact.
Among the outcomes made possible in 2025:
Family reunification: We helped families torn apart by violence find their way back to one another. Among them is a brother and sister separated in childhood by the persecution against the Hazara community in Afghanistan, as well as supporting the reunification of orphaned twins and their older brother after years of separation and fear under the Taliban regime.
Protection from gender-based violence: We intervened to protect a young woman whose future was nearly stolen by forced marriage. Working closely with the Consular Services at Global Affairs Canada, we helped the Canadian-born Afghan young woman escape a forced marriage and return safely to Canada, where she is recovering from her traumatic experience and rebuilding her life with autonomy.
LGBTQ+ protection: We responded to the call for help from two young LGBTQ+ Afghan women targeted for their sexual orientation. When the threats escalated from both the Taliban and their own families, we helped secure their immediate protection, providing shelter, healthcare, and daily necessities while they await resettlement in Canada. This is only a small example of the scale of the challenges we face. These two women’s situation is not unique; many more individuals need support.
Advocacy: Alongside direct interventions, we continued advocacy efforts on behalf of more than 3,000 Afghan allies who supported Canada’s mission in Afghanistan and remain stranded in precarious conditions across the region, facing ongoing risk and uncertainty.
These efforts — rooted in shared humanity and human rights — are brought to life in Stories & Insights, where the voices of our leadership, staff, and the individuals we serve reflect the human impact behind the work. Together, they show what donor support truly enables: not just movement across borders, but care, coordination, and the possibility of rebuilding life with dignity.
Looking Ahead to 2026: Deepening our Humanitarian Impact
As we prepare for the year ahead, Aman Lara has been laying the groundwork for a new humanitarian initiative in partnership with Canadian physicians, clinicians, humanitarian partners, and community organizations.
In 2026, we aim to advance a clinically governed medical-evacuation and community-support initiative, “Healing & Horizons,” designed to safely transfer critically injured Palestinian children from Gaza to Canada for life-saving care that is not available in the region and where Canadian clinical capacity exists to assist. The initiative also aims to support family stability through structured caregiver employability assessments and alignment with provincial labour-market needs. The result is a coherent, forward-looking pathway that meets immediate medical needs and strengthens longer-term resilience for families and provinces alike.
Healing & Horizons draws on Aman Lara’s experience in Afghanistan, Ukraine, and other complex humanitarian responses, grounded in a simple principle: evacuation is about care, stability, and dignity for the entire family — not movement alone.
At the same time, we remain committed to Afghan women, Hazara communities, LGBTQ+ individuals, and young people forcibly returned to Afghanistan. These communities continue to face systemic repression, violence, and exclusion, and their resilience reinforces why this work must continue.
The People Behind the Work
I would be remiss not to recognize the extraordinary commitment of Aman Lara’s staff, volunteers, and Board. This year, their efforts helped secure Aman Lara’s charitable status — strengthening our ability to steward your support with transparency, accountability, and care.
Having served alongside many dedicated teams throughout my career, including in the Canadian Armed Forces, I can say with confidence that few match the depth of commitment shown by the people behind Aman Lara. The organization’s strength lies not in its size, but in its proximity to the communities we serve, its ability to adapt quickly, and its deep sense of responsibility to act with integrity and purpose. As we look ahead, your continued generosity allows this work to carry forward — translating compassion into action when it is needed most.
This holiday season, whether you choose to support Aman Lara through a one-time gift, a monthly donation, or by sharing our work with others, your support will be felt every day by people who have nowhere else to turn. Even small acts can help restore safety, dignity, and hope.
Thank you for standing with us. I wish you a peaceful holiday season, and I look forward to continuing this vital work together in 2026.
Warm regards,
Jon Feltham
Executive Director, Aman Lara
