Afghan entrepreneur’s e-commerce app pivots to help during crisis

Aseel, a platform that helps Afghan artisans sell their goods abroad, has revamped its website to allow people around the world to donate humanitarian aid packages to struggling families in Kabul.

Nasrat Khalid has been fascinated with technology and the internet ever since he was a child. Growing up as a refugee in Pakistan in the 1990s, he taught himself how to code at a very young age with the encouragement of his parents, who launched refugee schools for thousands of Afghan families like theirs. Even as a child, Khalid believed that he would one day return to Afghanistan and use his knowledge to help connect his country to the rest of the world. In 2018, he made that dream a reality using $175,000 in savings and loans from family and friends, to launch the internet platform Aseel.