Our Impact Recognized
SAFAR's humanitarian efforts have earned notable acclaim, including from former U.S. President Obama and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. We also won the USC Viterbi School of Engineering ABC Innovation Prize, and our work was featured in the local Emmy-winning documentary, "Lives Not Grades."
Our Story
Early days
Our nonprofit was initially formed by a group of students at the University of Southern California to help refugees find access to resources around them.
SAFAR offered its first service through an app that we piloted in Lesbos, Greece. SAFAR (سفر) means 'journey' in Farsi and Arabic.
Focus on Afghanistan & Pakistan
In 2021, as Afghanistan fell back into the hands of the Taliban, we turned our focus to organizing and managing the evacuation of over 300 at-risk Afghans by coordinating efforts between Afghan leaders, other NGOs, and U.S. officials.
Fast forward to 2024, our efforts are now hyper-focused on providing access to educational resources to refugee children, primarily girls, and providing refugee families access to critical resources through our partnership with local schools, hospitals, and grassroots organizations.