(KRON/AP) — Reality TV star Kim Kardashian paid for a chartered flight to help evacuate more than 30 Afghan girls’ soccer players and their families on Thursday.
Members from Afghanistan’s youth development soccer team and their families, about 130 people in total, landed at Stansted Airport near London early Thursday morning. They will undergo a 10-day quarantine before starting their new lives in Britain.
The players, all between the ages of 13 and 19, were staying in Pakistan on temporary visas following the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.
The team got help from the Tzedek Association, a nonprofit U.S. group that previously helped the last known member of Kabul’s Jewish community leave Afghanistan.
The group’s founder, Rabbi Moshe Margaretten, has worked with reality TV star Kardashian West on criminal justice reform in the U.S. He reached out to her to help pay for a chartered plane to the U.K.
“Maybe an hour later, after the Zoom call, I got a text message that Kim wants to fund the entire flight,” Margaretten said.
Kardashian West’s spokeswoman confirmed that the star and her brand SKIMs had chartered the flight.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.