12/27/2022 0 Comments Rapid city journalThe United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees brought him to the U.S. Carving out new livesĪbbas Ali, 46, moved to Bennington in the summer of 2021 after a few months of living in Albany, New York. She said they’re “tremendously grateful” for the ways they’ve been welcomed to Vermont. “These are folks, who, in many circumstances, risked their lives for this country,” she said, “and they’ve been just uprooted.”Ī local business owner, Kielson said she sees the Afghans as “incredibly motivated to work,” since most of them also need to regularly send money to relatives back home. She considers her volunteer activity as a way of repaying them for working alongside Americans in Afghanistan. Leslie Kielson is a Sunderland resident who often helps the Afghans find jobs. Since February, she has assisted multiple Afghan families in various roles: as a conversation buddy, driving them to appointments, getting official documents such as social security numbers. “There’s a chance for people to make a difference,” said Tracey Hitchen Boyd, a volunteer who lives in Cambridge, New York, about half an hour away from Bennington. Mohammed, like the other Afghans who can’t attend the English classes because of work, get one-on-one lessons from volunteer “conversation buddies.” He goes to the local middle school and attended two soccer camps this summer. Their teenage son, Shahed, on the other hand, is picking up the language fast. She and Mohammed had said their unfamiliarity with English was a big hurdle in adapting to the U.S. One class dissected the elements of a complex sentence on a blackboard while, in another room, Mary Jan wrote and recited the English alphabet. That day, as is their routine, teachers grouped students according to their English level. Mary Jan studies the English alphabet with the help of a volunteer teacher during a class in Bennington on Tuesday, Aug. The organizations hire professional teachers for the classes and also sign up volunteer tutors. The classes are co-organized by Bennington County Open Arms and The Tutorial Center. One morning this summer, Mary Jan joined a handful of fellow Afghans participating in twice-a-week English classes at a church facility in Bennington. The organization has 35 core volunteers and is always looking for more. The resettlement agency has so far placed 28 adults and children in the county, in towns such as Bennington and Manchester, said Bennington County Open Arms director Anandaroopa, who goes by one name. Most of the volunteers here come through Bennington County Open Arms, a volunteer organization that four residents set up last year to support international arrivals in the county. Mohammed’s family is adjusting to local life with the assistance of volunteers - area residents who help the Afghans navigate tasks, such as finding a home, getting a job, learning to drive, setting up doctor’s appointments and learning English. They include eight families in Bennington County, according to the Ethiopian Community Development Council, a federally contracted resettlement agency that has placed Afghan refugees in Windham and Bennington counties. government, many faced serious threats to their safety.Īpproximately 260 Afghan adults and children have been resettled in Vermont. The UNHCR noted that some of the Afghans who’ve relocated served as translators or interpreters during the U.S. The vast majority of Afghan refugees - 2.2 million - are living in Pakistan and Iran. He asked that VTDigger not disclose the family's full names to protect the safety of relatives who are still in Afghanistan.Īccording to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Afghans now constitute one of the largest refugee populations in the world. “I was happy that I’d be able to get my family out of there,” Mohammed said in Dari. since the American military completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan on Aug. The couple and their 13-year-old son are among at least 76,000 Afghans who’ve been evacuated to the U.S. Because of his American ties, Mohammed was afraid the Taliban would throw him into prison. The family decided to leave their native land, fearing for their safety as the Taliban advanced into the Afghan capital in August of last year. He previously served as a security guard at the U.S. Her husband Mohammed, 45, is employed as a carpenter by an independent contractor in the county. is really expensive, one person cannot afford what a family needs.” “It’s really good that I can get some money out of this,” Mary Jan said of her knitting, speaking in Dari through an interpreter.
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