Oklahoma's mother helped to rescue the Afghan girls in robotics from Afghanistan.
Allyson Reneau met the girls previously at a conference in 2019, and wanted to help them escape.
Reneau said that the girls who arrived in Qatar this week are "safe, well-being, and happy."
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Oklahoma mother, 60, who helped several members from an international recognized robotics team for girls from Afghanistan escape said that they feel "so grateful" to have been out.
After several failed attempts, 10 so-called Afghan Dreamers, aged 16-18, were able to fly commercially to Doha, Qatar on Tuesday.
Allyson Reneau, a mom-of-11 from Oklahoma who met the girls for the first time at a Humans to Mars summit, was one of the people who helped them escape.
Continue reading: Images of Afghans falling from a skyscraper close America's book about its tragic and futile response after 9/11
Reneau said that they left everything behind in order to follow their dreams and be educated. "They seem happy, secure, and well-off now."
Reneau, who graduated in 2016 from Harvard, said that she has kept in touch since meeting the team at the conference.
She said, "Being a mother to nine biological children, I felt instantly drawn to them and it was mutual."
According to the 60-year old, the girls had been texting her for weeks about Afghanistan. One morning in August, she awoke with the "overwhelming and dreadful feeling" that something was wrong.
"I felt like they were in great danger. She said, "I couldn't shake it." "It was so strong that I had no choice but to act."
Reneau tried for days to reach her senator and other local officials in an effort to get the team out.
After overcoming many obstacles, she decided to travel to Qatar by herself. She contacted an old roommate, who was a Qatari national and works for the Embassy shortly before her flight.
The friend was able file all paperwork and, with the assistance of the embassy started the process to get the girls out of Kabul. Reneau decided to stay behind and help the girls from far away.
After their first round of competition in FIRST Global Robotics Challenge in Washington, members from the Afghanistan team repair their robot. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Reneau stated that she was shocked to hear that some of the girls had escaped safely when she heard the news.
"I received a text message from one of my girls saying, "We did it." It was all the emotion that I felt after two weeks of hard work, running into a wall every day, and then burying my feelings and sharing my feelings with the girls, it hit me instantly.
In 2017, the all-girl Afghan robotics team was featured in national news when they visited Washington DC to compete in an international robotics contest.
Although they were initially unable to get visas, former President Donald Trump intervened and allowed them to fly to DC to compete.
Reneau stated that while the girls are currently deciding where to go in Qatar, Reneau also said that they have received a "bundance" of scholarships offers from amazing universities in the US.
She said, "For the first ever in their lives, I really believe that they have the freedom and the ability to choose and be the architects for their own destiny." It's a liberating feeling for me to know they can go anywhere and get an education wherever they choose.
