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Featured Now Raihana Rahimi. This is a VERY rough DRAFT - I am just trying to show some of what we have.
Our Mission : Valerie Bonzer Foundation for the American Dreamer Also Known As VB4AD will assist an individual and/or family to achieve his/her/their "American Dream" (Global Dream)
When I planned this Charity, my original idea was to find a young Veteran who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan and who has a young child - and also find a Muslim family of similar age and give them both the opportunity to work together to build their own homes and start a business. Well . . .
I looked for more than 2 years to find a veteran who would fit the bill.
And, the best laid Plans… “No Battle Plan Survives Contact with the Enemy” Helmuth von Moltke (prox)
When your plan meets the real world, the real world wins.
I never said that building a Dream is easy. I still had plenty to occupy me. But I didn’t forget – or stop looking . . .
We discovered a Dreamer in TIME !
Real World Wins . . . and AD wins !
Time Magazine: Former Afghan air force pilot Raihana Rahimi, who appears with Hasina Najibi on the cover and was interviewed by Afghan journalist Farahnaz Forotan, expresses a similar sentiment. “I am determined to find a way back into my profession,” she says.
“This is the dream that keeps me alive.”
The profession she desires is Aviation, Aircraft, Flying !
When I first got this idea after reading The Mirror Test by Kyle Weston, I was frustrated with our pattern of trying to win Hearts and Minds, by invading and shooting people.
My idea was to find a USA Veteran and Muslim to build each individual’s Dream by working together. I looked for the veteran first, thinking better to start on what I knew. Well – that didn’t work so well. In two years, I did not find a veteran. Or that is, I found two, but – One fellow had been a Ranger. He knew some skills, but there was sort of a shadow behind him – or a cloud over his head.
We started working together, looks like he could do the job, but one day he asked for an advance, and did not show up the next day.
The other was a Marine. He had been working for TV Reality shows in Lighting. Covid put him out of work. He looked very good. But Covid eased, TV productions started again, and he was back to Hollywood.
I laid that idea aside for a time to work on my other projects. My background was Aviation War Surplus. We bought old warplanes and took them apart and sold the parts, sometimes the whole planes for civil use. Piper, Cessna, Beech, Mooney – even Lear. We put the instrument panel in the first LearJet prototype, in Suisse. That was my mother’s and Ellis’ work for much of their lives. I was errand boy and manager. My father was an actor and editor, so I got into building sets, which led me into re-building slums. --- roughly Aviation and construction. That’s what I thought I could help my disparate families learn and do. I was mostly focused on rebuilding a couple of houses and starting a business.
...........But TIME magazine gave me another idea: This Article about Dreamers
HASINA NAJIBI AND RAIHANA RAHIMI
Fort Myers, Fla.
BY FARAHNAZ FOROTAN (FF)
AFGHAN AIR FORCE pilots Hasina Najibi and Raihana Rahimi met last year when they attended an aviation training in Dubai. The two women, who are both 25, immediately clicked and became close friends. They shared a passion for flying, and both had to fight to earn that right.
Najibi, an ethnic Pashtun, (Pashtuns are Sunni Muslims ) would go to work disguised in large sunglasses, worried her relatives and neighbors would discover she was a pilot.
Rahimi often faced discrimination in the armed forces for belonging to the Hazara community. (Hazara is Shi'a)
They were preparing to return from Dubai when the Taliban captured Kabul. Worried that the Taliban would take revenge on their families if they were discovered, they told their families to burn the uniforms they'd left at home, as well as their pilot IDs and diplomas.
Najibi watched on a video call as her mother set her uniform alight. "All my dreams were on fire;' she says, "and I was just watching:'
Now, living together in the heat of southern Florida, the women wait tables in a strip mall. In the evenings, they put a rug under the tree near their apartment. They drink green tea and talk about their lives back in Afghanistan-and their biggest dream: to return to the skies.
FF: What has surprised you about where you live now?
Najibi: The streets, the people, the food, even the trees-nothing is familiar here.
Rahimi: How far we are from home. In the early days, Hasina and I would look at a map of the world from time to time. We'd look at America, and then Afghanistan, and we'd get a scary feeling of being so far from our home.
FF: When you think of Afghanistan's future, what comes to mind?
Rahimi: I think about Afghan women, and how they should not be forgotten. They lost everything they had. Their lives, their rights, and their dreams are now being held hostage. Sometimes I feel this situation is not going to last. I think one day Afghanistan will be liberated and we will return to our country. How can a regime that ignores half of society survive?
FF: What's the most important thing you have with you?
Najibi: I have my air force badge, which is very special to me. The day we flew from Dubai to America, they told us we could only take one suitcase with us. I packed a set of air force uniforms and my flight booklet and a few other things from my time in the military. Once, when I felt homesick, I opened my suitcase. Seeing my uniform gave me the hope that I might be able to study again here and become a pilot. Every time I get tired, I think about that uniform, and I feel like I. can handle anything.
FF: Where do you see yourself one year from now?
Najibi: All I dream of is returning to my studies. I hope by this time next year, I'll be closer to my goal.
Rahimi: I lost my life, but I won’t lose my hope. I am determined to find a way back into my profession. This is the dream that keeps me alive. Even though I sometimes feel exhausted, I tell myself I'll find a way. Back in Afghanistan my family and even my teachers at times would tell me piloting is not for me. I always felt the discrimination. But I succeeded there. I am sure I can succeed again.
Sooo. . .
Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To flutter - and the Bird is on the Wing.
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam of Naishapur
Edward Fitzgerald (1809 - 1883)
Let’s get moving . . .
It took me two weeks and dozens of phone calls and E-mails, but I finally got ahold of the girls and asked if they would like to join this project and learn to fly – probably with the goal of going into the Airlines. They were working in the deli at Publix. Steady, but not flying.
Once they realized I was serious and there was means, “Oh, THANK YOU, YES, THANK YOU !”
Well, even something as simple as that gets complicated. People are people.
Here is the story of Raihana Rahimi.
OK – Not quite yet. We could use a Volunteer to edit the story.
But a happy ending to 1st Step. She now has her Private Pilot License. August 2025
So I invite YOU to PARTICIPATE ! Frederick Kohler – Call: 310-274-2177 Send an Email : VB4AD@usa.com
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