(c) UNHCR
HELPING WOMEN & CHILDREN REFUGEES
HOW & WHY WE STARTED
Dear Supporter,
TKHF was inspired by a 2007 trip that I made to Afghanistan as an Envoy to Ambassador for the UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency). I met repatriated refugee families who lived on less than $1 per day, spent winters in tents or holes dug underground, and whose villages routinely lost ten to fifteen children to the elements every winter. As a father myself, I was overwhelmed and heartbroken to witness such suffering. I decided, when I returned to the U.S., that I would make an effort to advocate for these people and improve their conditions.
The refugees I met did not ask for charity. They were a resilient, hard-working, and resourceful people, eager to rebuild their country and put the dark past behind them. What they asked for was access to some very basic resources, shelter and education foremost among them, so they could work to fulfill their own dreams and hopes. My Foundation’s goal is to provide the most vulnerable groups in Afghanistan –women, children, and refugees- with the opportunity to do just that. I know that providing them with shelter and access to education will give them a sense of control over their lives and allow them to begin rebuilding their broken country.
Please join me in this effort.
Thank you,
Khaled Hosseini
Khaled Hosseini
Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965. His father was a diplomat in the Afghan Foreign Ministry and his mother taught Farsi and history at a high school in Kabul. In 1976, the Foreign Ministry relocated the Hosseini family to Paris. They were ready to return to Kabul in 1980, but by then their homeland had witnessed a bloody communist coup and the invasion of the Soviet Army. The Hosseinis sought and were granted political asylum in the United States, and in September 1980 moved to San Jose, California. Hosseini graduated from high school in 1984 and enrolled at Santa Clara University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1988. The following year he entered the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, where he earned a medical degree in 1993. He completed his residency at Cedars-Sinai medical center in Los Angeles and was a practicing internist between 1996 and 2004.
In March 2001, while practicing medicine, Hosseini began writing his first novel, The Kite Runner, which was published by Riverhead Books in 2003. That debut went on to launch one of the biggest literary careers of our time. Today, Khaled Hosseini is one of the most recognized and bestselling authors in the world. His books, The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and And the Mountains Echoed, have been published in over seventy countries and sold more than 40 million copies worldwide.
In 2006 Khaled was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. Inspired by a trip he made to Afghanistan with the UNHCR, he later established The Khaled Hosseini Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which provides humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan. He lives in Northern California with his wife and two children.
Founder and President
MEET THE TEAM
Roya Hosseini
Roya is the Co-Founder of The Khaled Hosseini Foundation and wife of Khaled Hosseini. Roya is a 1991 graduate from University of California, Berkeley and received her law degree from Southwestern University School of Law, cum laude in 1997. From 1999-2006, she worked as a venture capital financng attorney at Fenwick & West, LLP and Intel Capital Corp.
Co-founder
Sandra Hosseini
As a CPA, Sandra held various accounting positions at Arthur Andersen, KPMG, and Symantec from 1999-2003. She is a cum laude graduate from San Jose State University.
Executive Director
Parisa Mirza-Khan
Parisa hails from Chicago where she was a Director of Marketing and Sales for Preoria, a software company. She is a cum laude graduate with a business degree from San Jose State University and has been with TKHF since 2013.
Project Coordinator
Lisa Cendejas
Lisa is a licensed marriage and family therapist who received her undergraduate degree from UC Davis and masters from Santa Clara University. She has been with TKHF since 2010.
Executive Assistant
Marc Parkinson
CPA and Managing Partner at Petrinovich Pugh and Company, LLP
TKHF Advisory Board Member and Treasurer since 2017
Elizabeth Share
Founder of Wise Giving
TKHF Foundation Consultant since 2011
MEET OUR ADVISORY BOARD
& CONSULTANTS
(c) Elena Seibert