Af-Pak Banga (APB) Refugee Resettlement Project
The project is aimed at facilitating the resettlement of refugees in the US and Canada by providing assistance in food, clothing, shelter, health, education and employment.
Challenges, Threats, Remediation and Opportunities follow:
+ Challenges and Threats
- Hindus and other Dharmika peoples in the Af-Pak and Banga regions face grave danger from religious fanatics (have been for long and increasingly face)
- Hindu girls are abducted and forcibly converted (Pak media reports approx. 1,000 girls year; actual figures are much higher)
- Hindus who speak up for the community are subjected to institutionalized discrimination and persecution
- Livelihood, education, healthcare, jobs, trade, business and other public activities are weaponized against Hindus sanctioned by the state (e.g. property disputes, criminal acts by muslims against Hindus)
- The state machinery divides the minority communities and pit one against the other to escape scrutiny and accountability
+ Remediation and Opportunities
- Persecuted Hindus in the Af-Pak Banga regions have an opportunity to seek refuge in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere with the support of Hindu-American community at large
Those who are most vulnerable can be prioritized for support; three distinct classes are prioritized here with based on middle and lower income levels
- Families with young Hindu girls from middle class and lower income groups who are likely to be targeted for abduction and forced conversion, and do not have the means to escape
- Hindu activists and religious leaders from middle class and lower income groups who lead the Hindu communities in the region, who are more likely to be targeted because of their activist work challenging the establishment
- Hindu intellectuals, academicians, teachers, authors, writers/columnists, journalists from middle class and lower income groups who dissent and challenge the hegemony of the establishment
For further details about the project including methods, use of funds, project implementation and instruments please contact:
Rajiv Varma
rajiv.varma@ldsfa.org (e-mail)
+1 (832) 736-5643 (whatsapp/txt/voice)
