Sara Wahedi: From Refugee to Tech Innovator in Afghanistan

Sara Wahedi, a former refugee, returned to Afghanistan to contribute to its development. She launched Ehtesab, a mobile app providing emergency alerts, before focusing on covert aid through Civaam.

As quickly as she reached her house, an additional explosion occurred. “For the next 12 hours, it was back-to-back surges,” she remembers. “It resembled watching a film scene: suddenly everything is damaged.”

After the internship, Wahedi remained in Kabul and became a plan assistant for the Afghan government. “I was a lot in love with the country, with having the ability to add to its advancement,” she says. She was surrounded by likeminded young people, “many of us friends who were part of building this new Afghanistan, and the exhilaration of that,” she states,” business owners with startups, flower stores, institutions.”

Fear attacks were a day-to-day event. Afteran assault on the largest hospital in Kabul’s provinces, Wahedi drove there to make sure a physician good friend was secure.

Afghanistan’s collapse came as a big shock to Wahedi. She had actually obtained word from the United States embassy that any person in Afghanistan planning to study in the United States must leave promptly.

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Years later, Wahedi began dealing with refugee assistance organisations in Canada throughout the summertime vacations of her political science level at the University of British Columbia. She delayed her research studies to proceed the work, and found herself examining her own identification. “As a refugee,” she says, “if you integrate truly well, it brings up concerns of: ‘Where did I originate from?'” Then, by chance in 2017 she was supplied a six-month internship by a research firm in Afghanistan that was hoping to build a ‘toolkit’ to sustain evacuees.

Early Life and Refugee Experience

One of Sara Wahedi’s earliest memories is of being 4 years of ages, residing in a refugee sanctuary in Buffalo, New York, with a heavy sense of responsibility. Her mom, having actually been dislodged of her job as an English teacher by the Taliban, had actually taken off Afghanistan with her two children, intending to start a brand-new life in The United States and Canada.

Years later on, Wahedi started working with refugee support organisations in Canada during the summertime holidays of her political science level at the University of British Columbia. After the internship, Wahedi remained in Kabul and came to be a plan aide for the Covering government. Afteran attack on the largest hospital in Kabul’s provinces, Wahedi drove there to make certain a physician good friend was secure. Wahedi used a group to work on data evaluation and crowdsourcing reports from customers so that Ehtesab might provide notifies to Afghans to aid them keep themselves safe during emergencies. Afghanistan’s collapse came as a massive shock to Wahedi.

Return to Afghanistan and Ehtesab App

She wishes, eventually, to go back to an Afghanistan where all citizens can stay in freedom and safety and security. For now, she locates motivation in the Afghan ladies she knows who resist extreme laws everyday, and in her friend, “a dazzling education and learning protestor” who she states is handling 14 underground colleges in Afghanistan.”

Wahedi has no recollection of her very early youth in Kabul. “I think my life and my memory really began in Canada,” she claims. “Maturing in poverty– while my mama operated at least three jobs– and relying on sanctuaries and food financial institutions, humbled me from an early age.”

After her internship, Wahedi remained in Kabul and came to be a policy aide for the Afghan federal government. ‘I was so much in love with the nation, with having the ability to add to its advancement’ she says. Picture: EJ Wolfson.

Covert Aid Through Civaam

Currently studying at the College of Oxford, Wahedi is still excited by the power of modern technology as a “device for good”. Her approach, via her start-up Civaam, currently has to be covert. “The job we’re trying to do is assisting in concealed paths to medical care, to education and psychosocial assistance in dilemma areas, that we do behind the scenes or underground.”

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She got the help of one of Afghanistan’s most significant tech business to create a complimentary mobile app and launched Ehtesab, a word definition openness and liability in Dari and Pashto. Wahedi employed a group to work with information analysis and crowdsourcing records from individuals to make sure that Ehtesab could provide alerts to Afghans to aid them maintain themselves risk-free throughout emergency situations. The application continued operating after the Taliban confiscated control of the nation in 2021 before ultimately closing in September 2024 to prioritise the security of its workers.

“I claimed, how do you know it’s ISIS? It took place that the buddy, an employee at the US consular office in Kabul, received safety text alerts. Finding that such a system existed, however was just offered to a privileged couple of “in a prepared concrete bunker” was a lightbulb minute for Wahedi.