About Us & Our Work

Prior to the Afghan evacuation date of August 2021, Leslie Merriman was a volunteer with the local Washington DC chapter of No One Left Behind for several years. In this role, she established her own pipeline of volunteers and donors and helped welcome and settle hundreds of families in the DC metro area. In early 2021, Leslie left No One Left Behind. The organization was undergoing leadership changes and was planning to close all chapters in the U.S. 

(Note: No One Left Behind is an organization working to support Special Immigrant Visa recipients, our war-time allies who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.)

When the evacuation efforts began, Leslie reached out to local Afghan families to see if there was any help or information she could provide them and when the situation became all the more volatile, Leslie reached back to resources in the Afghan volunteer community to help coordinate evacuation efforts. 

From home in Virginia, Leslie connected to other former No One Left Behind volunteers and joined multiple evacuation efforts with Task Force Pineapple, Operation North Star, Flanders Fields, Operation Recovery and some other efforts done via smaller teams of people. 

Leslie helped evacuate upwards of 200 Afghans, including U.S. citizens, Green Card holders, SIVs. Most of her evacuation work brought local families back here to their homes in the DC metro area. 

After the withdrawal, Leslie had the opportunity to merge resources with an existing, established Afghan based non profit. This merger allowed humanitarian work to continue with a far greater scope and reach across Afghanistan as a whole. The merger of the Afghan based non-profit (name withheld for staff safety) with my work created OUR CULTURE IS GIVING with the sole focus on a simple belief that charity, giving to others, is the most essential aspect in any successful culture and society. 

Our core services included finding safe houses, food deliveries, medical care, documentation help and expanded into medical crisis work such as providing hospitals in Kabul with critical supplies in the Fall and Winter of 2021 (heaters for maternity wards, and medical supplies after the Hazara Education Center bombing). 

Since October 2021, Leslie and her team based in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UK have helped keep hundreds of US allies safe, warm and fed. 

Beyond this, we have done numerous free food distributions in Kabul at children's schools. Our primary focus now is providing free mobile medical care across Afghanistan, serving thousands of women and children.

We focus our care in regions which are primarily ethnic, non-Pashtun areas and include Tajik, Uzbek, Turkmen, and Hazara. These ethnic regions have suffered under the Taliban in far greater ways than the nation as a whole. Ethnic persecutions, mass killings, forced population displacements, Taliban refusal to supply ethnic regional hospitals and a broken economy has made day to day life untenable without focused aid. Further, the restrictions on women have made child labor skyrocket and plunged families into deeper poverty.

Mobile medical clinics are determined by need, which is challenging since the needs far outweigh resources. Requests for help come to our medical team via tribal elders and Imams and prior to our medical care events, we try to survey the issues in that area so we can come prepared with appropriate medications. 

Beyond these medical clinics, we specialize in post sexual assault care for women and children of all ages. Depending on the severity of the assault, we either manage care in their location or in cases of severe trauma, we transport them to our care base within Afghanistan. 

We provide survivors safe and free access to all needed medical care, tests and follow-up exams, along with emotional support. We offer free and safe access to first trimester medical abortions as well. 

The sexual assault of women and children at the hands of the Taliban is rampant and especially targets ethnic minorities. With no one to keep the Taliban in check, they abuse their power and hurt the most vulnerable, especially those with U.S. family ties and former employment with the U.S. in any capacity. 

The Taliban, as the de facto governing power, oversee the regional hospitals. The Taliban do not believe women and children who are raped deserve medical care. Beyond that, families who report and try to seek justice for their assaulted family member are often threatened by the Taliban and worse, imprisoned and murdered. 

Our large network of volunteer doctors try to fill this depraved void of medical care. We coordinate with local tribal elders and Imams to identify those who need critical care after an assault and secure some of them with long term care and support. 

For each case we take in, we assess their overall health, run labs and diagnostics, provide medication, follow up care, if needed, an abortion, if needed, a safe house as well. We also provide food, all at no cost. 

Some of those who have come into our care stay long term. We care for several families and provide them housing, food, clothing, education, medical care, personal care needs, and more. We provide this at no cost. 

The families we care for and assist are primarily those with ties to the U.S. These are families who have paid the ultimate price and made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. 

We try to honor our fallen American soldiers, and fallen Afghan allies by keeping the promises the American government has failed to honor. 

We desperately need help with awareness and donations. Please keep our small organization in mind. We are not salaried. Every cent donated goes 100% to care and not admin fees or salaries. 

Please note, security for the OCIG team in Afghanistan is paramount. The team works in anonymity for their and their family's safety. We cannot share the names of our team members, our many doctors, Imams and elders who make this work happen.