Being a mother to children doesn’t always have to be a biological affair. In fact, for one 60-year old mom from Oklahoma, Allyson Reneau, the all-girl Afghan robotics team known to the world as the “Afghan Dreamers” was one group quite close to her heart. She had come to know the girls a few years earlier during their trip to the US, and they ended up becoming her number one priority when the Taliban decided to take over the country and the Afghani government a couple of weeks before.
Reneau, who happens to be a Harvard graduate, had met the all-girl robotics team back in May of 2019 during the Human to Mars summit that occurred in Washington DC. So when she heard the horrible news of the attacks of the Taliban going on recently in Afghanistan, especially attacks on women and children, she feared for their safety.
Reneau, who happens to be a mother of 11 children – 9 of which are girls – decided that she had to do something to get these girls to safety before something horrible happened to them. She said, “Being a mother of nine biological daughters, I felt immediately drawn to them and I think it was, it was mutual.”
According to a report in Business Insider, the girls had been texting with Reneau for a few weeks, talking about the scary turn of events going on in their country. Then one day, she woke up with “a dreadful feeling that something was really wrong.”
“I somehow felt that they were in great danger. And I couldn’t shake it. It was so pronounced that I had to take action,” she said.
This had her attempting to move heaven and earth to get these girls to safety. Despite a number of problems and setbacks, she was able to get in touch with one of her former roommates who also happened to work at the US Embassy in Qatar. She also worked with the Dreamers’ parent organization, Digital Citizen Fund (DCF) to help get the girls out. Reneau’s roommate also helped by fixing the girls’ passports and other required documents in order for them to make it out of Afghanistan.
It took a few attempts, but finally towards the middle of August, at least 10 of the girls between the ages 16 to 18 from the robotics team managed to get on a commercial flight from Kabul to Doha, Qatar. Reneau explained to NBC, “It’s a very narrow window of opportunity. I knew that if I didn’t run through that door now – it’s now or never.”
When she finally got a text from one of the girls saying that they had finally made it out of Kabul, she shared just how emotional she felt. She told BI, “I got a text from one of the girls that just said: ‘We did it.’ All the emotion from two weeks of work and running into a wall constantly, and burying your feelings, and bearing your feelings for the girls, it just hit me all at once.”
According to one of the DCF board members, Elizabeth Schaeffer Brown, while she explains that it was a group effort to get the girls’ released from Kabul, more than that, it was truly the girls’ perseverance and daring determination that got them out.
Brown told NBC, “Ultimately the girls ‘rescued’ themselves. If it were not for their hard work and courage to pursue an education, which brought them in contact with the world, they would still be trapped. We need to continue to support them and others like them.”
The ‘Afghan Dreamers’ first became known to the world when they traveled to the United States in 2017 to join an international robotics competition. They were first denied their US visas, which were eventually granted by former US President Donald Trump to come to DC to compete.
Since the girls arrived in Qatar, while they are still trying to figure out where they will go, they have received a number of scholarships from many prestigious universities all throughout the United States.
Reneau told BI, “For the first time in their life, I really believe they have the freedom to choose and to be the architects of their own destiny and their own future. It’s the freeing feeling to me to know that they will able to go somewhere and get educated wherever they want.”
She also said, “They left everything behind to pursue their dreams and to be free and educated. They now seem to be safe, well, and happy.”
Now, the hope to is to be able to rescue the other girls of the robotics team that were left behind in Kabul. Many are praying very hard that that day will come before it’s too late.
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