Afghan women's soccer team players have safely made their way from Pakistan to the United Kingdom after Kim Kardashian West funded "the entire flight."
The reality star chartered a plane carrying members of Afghanistan's women's youth development soccer team and their families, which arrived in the United Kingdom on Thursday, The Associated Press reports. Rabbi Moshe Margaretten, the founder of the non-profit group that aided the soccer players, told AP he previously worked with Kardashian West on her criminal justice reform efforts, and he reached out to her to see if she could help pay for the chartered plane. "Maybe an hour later, after the Zoom call, I got a text message that Kim wants to fund the entire flight," Margaretten told AP.
Former Afghanistan national women's team captain Khalida Popal noted to AP that "many of those families left their houses when the Taliban took over" Afghanistan in August, and "it was very important to move fast to get them outside Afghanistan." Members of the team had been awaiting a flight out of Pakistan for several weeks, the report notes, and there were reportedly around 130 people on the plane.
Margaretten on Twitter expressed gratitude that the team "landed safely in London after fearing for their lives for so long," and he thanked Kardashian West for funding the flight, writing, "I pray others will learn from your generosity & help high-risk Afghans at risk."