Welcome to Episode 53 of The Afghanistan Project Podcast, featuring Beau Lendman, a former Senior Vice President at Anham whose support to the company’s 5,000 Afghan special immigrant visa applicants led him to create AfghanHire, a remote hiring platform that links skilled Afghans with lucrative jobs.

Beau and I discussed the effort of supporting so many SIV applicants in the days after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the journey to understand how to successfully help applicants navigate the program. We also talked about a problematic development in December 2023, when a series of applicants were denied SIV in what appeared to be a batched manner, and some applicants who had achieved Chief of Mission approval and sometimes were preparing for flights to the U.S. had that COM approval revoked. We addressed the mental load that the latest devastating turn of events has added for Beau, who feels he has been party to malfeasance.

Finally, we talked about the development of AfghanHire, and how Beau hopes the company can make a difference around the world in the future.

About AfghanHire:

Follow AfghanHire on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/afghan-hire/about/ or visit their website: https://teams.afghanhire.org/

About the hosts:

Beth W. Bailey worked in support of Afghanistan operations as a civilian intelligence analyst for the Department of the Army between 2010 and 2013. She is a freelance contributor to Fox News Digital and the Washington Examiner. Follow her on Instagram or X ⁠@BWBailey85⁠.

Mikael Cook was an Army non-commissioned officer and veteran of the war in Afghanistan. He was an active member of the #DigitalDunkirk movement to evacuate our Afghan Allies in August of 2021. You can follow his Instagram @Mikaelcook89.

For listeners in Afghanistan:

If you would like to have your story considered for a future episode, please send us a letter about your experiences to our show e-mail address, [email protected]. Please include as much detail as possible, and let us know if you would like us to give you a pseudonym to protect your identity.