The story below is from our May/June 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Roanoke opens its arms for refugees, including from Afghanistan.
Like many urban areas, Roanoke is home to people from all walks of life, including refugees. United States law defines a refugee as an individual located outside the country who “demonstrates that they were persecuted or fear persecution due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.”
Not quite two years ago, Roanoke saw in influx in its refugee population when a number of refugees from Afghanistan were resettled in the area by organizations like Commonwealth Catholic Charities (CCC) following the Taliban taking control of the country after the United States military withdrawal.
“It has been incredible to be part of the response to assisting Afghan evacuees rebuild their lives here in Virginia,” says Katie Dillon, CCC’s marketing manager.
One of the refugees CCC helped get to Roanoke is 21-year-old Zai. She asked to only be identified by her surname, a common Afghan name, out of fear that her family back in Afghanistan could be persecuted because of her speaking out.
Having grown up after the Taliban’s ill-fated first attempt at governing Afghanistan, Zai received a full education. Despite the stability of her upbringing, the knowledge that the Taliban sought a return to power caused her much unease. Its policies of limiting the education and movement of women were top of mind.
Courtesy of Friendship House Roanoke
Friendship House of Roanoke offers temporary housing to refugees through its Good Neighbor Program. After it purchased two houses in 2021, Friendship House now operates four apartment units as part of the program.
Her concern proved to be prescient. “When they came, I lost everything,” she says.
At the time that the Afghan government fell in mid-2021, she was studying at a university and working at a government television station as a marketing assistant.
Due to her sex and line of work, she felt she was a target. “It’s so hard for women because the Taliban always wanted to attack and kill women journalists,” she says.
Zai remembers the first day of the invasion as being very hectic. “We heard shooting. It was a bad situation. The cars were stopped on the streets. It was like somebody closed everything,” she recalls.
She left the station and ran to her family’s apartment. “My parents shut down the lights. They closed the doors,” she says.
She received a text the following day from a colleague who told her that many who feared the Taliban were going to the Kabul International Airport in the hopes of safe passage out of the country.
At first, she didn’t believe her colleague. “How could someone go out of the country without having a visa or a process?” she remembers thinking. After her colleague informed her that she had already been exfiltrated to Qatar, she knew what she had to do.
She told her family that she was leaving for the airport, with only her phone, passport and identification card. To protect herself, she wore a hijab.
Courtesy of Friendship House Roanoke
Upon arrival, she found herself engulfed in mayhem. “The Taliban was shooting other people. I was so scared,” she says. She didn’t make it inside the first day, so she stayed the night nearby with her aunt.
She returned to the airport early the following morning. She eventually caught the attention of U.S. military personnel when she volunteered to translate for them. Once she was finished, she showed them her work identification and asked if she could leave the country. She could, they said, but didn’t have time to go back and get her family.
“I was crying. It was my first time getting separated from my family,” she says.
Eventually, she was sent to a military base in Qatar, where she stayed for 26 days. After brief stops in Bahrain, Spain and Washington, D.C., she ended up in Wisconsin.
Two and a half months later, she was asked where she wanted to stay long-term. The only familial connection she has in the U.S. is her aunt, who lives in Roanoke. She arrived in the city in December 2021.
She was placed in a hotel by CCC before she obtained her own housing the following month in Northwest Roanoke near Bowman Park.
Despite traveling a rocky road, Zai is hopeful about her future. She’s currently taking classes at Virginia Western Community College in the hopes of transferring to Virginia Tech to study computer engineering. She also works remotely to support herself and her family back in Afghanistan.
“The only thing that makes me happy is going to school and learning,” she says.
One of her favorite places in the city is the Hotel Roanoke.
Even if the Taliban loses power, Zai has no plans of returning. She simply wants to bring her family to the U.S., which she says has turned out to be much more accepting of Muslims than she was raised to believe.
Friendship House Roanoke and the Roanoke Refugee Partnership are among the organizations helping refugees like Zai start their lives in Roanoke.
Courtesy of Friendship House Roanoke
Friendship House has provided mercy ministries to the community for 85 years. In recent years, it has expanded its work to include refugee programs. Around 2017, it converted an apartment in its building into temporary refugee housing. In 2021, two houses within walking distance of Friendship House were added to its temporary housing program.
“It’s grown so much,” Aaron Dowdy, executive director, says of the Good Neighbor Program. Roughly 95% of the 70 refugee families it has worked with in the past year have been Afghan.
The organization’s refugee work extends beyond housing. When the local CCC office was largely overwhelmed by the number of Afghan refugees that were being settled in the area, Friendship House stepped in and supplemented where it could by providing things like clothing and furniture.
“Many of them who have come here have nothing and are relying on the kindness and generosity of others,” Dowdy says of the refugees. Most of them are given a caseworker and assistance through programs like WIC and Medicaid.
Zai speaks English; however, many of the refugees do not. To help them integrate into the community, Friendship House offers volunteer-run ESL classes that are attended by roughly 40 women.
Friendship House also helps refugees with simple things like learning how to ride the bus to Kroger and job placement. Even though most of the refugees Dowdy’s organization has placed have degrees and plenty of professional experience, they end up working menial jobs. “They have a dream and a passion to use the skills that they used in Afghanistan. Because the degrees don’t translate or they don’t know English yet, they’re required to maybe pack boxes in a factory or something in the meantime,” he explains.
Before they’re able to offer any of that assistance, however, Dowdy says his team spends a lot of time building relationships and showing the refugees that they’re going to be treated well.
The Roanoke Refugee Partnership is an organization made up of around 50 volunteers that offers tutoring and various kinds of assistance.
“We build a team of volunteers around a family in need. We help that family scaffold to self-sufficiency,” Bethany Lackey, executive director, says. Each family is provided a mentor who coordinates the services they receive.
Courtesy of Friendship House Roanoke
Since starting in 2017, one of the most in-demand services has been rent assistance.
After 2021, the number of Afghan refugees the partnership works with has increased dramatically. “They came in under a different status than a refugee status, so they had to go through a different process. We’ve been helping them navigate it,” she explains.
Aside from job-related concerns, Dowdy notes most of the refugees he knows have been able to settle into the community and establish a life for themselves. Many, he says, have found solace in each other, having formed an Afghan refugee community within the city. A “Little Afghanistan,” as it’s called by the refugees, has formed in Northwest Roanoke.
“They tend to gravitate towards each other. Some have started businesses,” he says. “They’re able to adapt pretty quickly.”
Lackey agrees. Many of the refugees she’s encountered have already become full members of the community. “We’re a community of helpers. I think that really helps with the transition from a different culture to Southwest Virginia,” she explains.
Joe Cobb, Roanoke vice mayor, says refugees like Zai contribute to the city’s vibrancy. “One of the things I love most about our city is its diversity and how increasingly multicultural we are.”
He added that Roanoke has historically been open to refugees, adding that he believes longtime city residents will continue to extend a hand to those from other cultures who are endeavoring to make a life for themselves here.
The story above is from our May/June 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!