A year after the Taliban takeover, Afghan families reflect on their evacuation and...
, as his wife and daughters cook in a small, steaming kitchen and serve hot tea and fresh fruit. He sits with his sons on an old, likely donated chair. A piece of fabric hangs from the window, in lieu of functioning blinds.
Still, Jahadullah — a Pashto speaker who was part of Afghan special forces — feels like after years of Afghan hospitality toward American and other foreign troops, he imagined a warmer welcome as a guest in the United States, especially after the year his family have been through. Jahadullah has gone from having all the tools to provide for his family to suddenly being culturally and linguistically isolated, managing life in a country of 12-lane highways, insurance premiums and individualism. When the Taliban took over Kabul on Aug. 15, 2021, Jahadullah and his family were among tens of thousands of Afghans who were rushed onto planes in the Afghan capital’s airport, where a mob of people were waving immigration paperwork up in the air, desperate to make it into the gates despite the imminent danger. Families relied on government emails, covert phone calls, military contacts and safe houses to make it out of the country, avoiding a shakedown by the Taliban, or the sudden blast at the airport that killed roughly 180 people, most of them Afghans.The wet, humid, subtropical concrete jungle of Houston is a far cry from the dry and sometimes very cold temperatures in Afghanistan for Jahadullah and the 5,500 Afghans who made it on those evacuation flights and are now living in dozens of Houston-area apartment buildings, many concentrated in southwest Houston. Roughly 7 percent of the total number of evacuated Afghans resettled in the U.S. over the last year are in the Houston area, making it among the top resettlement cities in the country. Unlike many refugees who come to the U.S. after being part of a long resettlement process, evacuated Afghans were airlifted from their homes in a matter of days, quickly and suddenly separated from parents, children, brothers and sisters — kin left behind including many who face Taliban harassment due to their family’s ties to the U.S. military. Remembering those hellish weeks in August 2021 brings some Afghans to tears - or silence - when asked to describe what happened. Behind their harrowing accounts are horrific memories, traumas that are unlikely to be addressed professionally considering limited access for culturally competent mental health care among refugee populations.Community leaders tackle mental well-being at first-of-its-kind Houston conferenceAfghans spent months on military bases in Wisconsin, Virginia and other states, undergoing security, medical and immigration screenings. They were slowly assigned to refugee resettlement agencies in cities including Houston and Dallas and others across the country. Through an interpreter, Jahadullah explained that after weeks at a military base, they placed him at a hotel in Houston, where he stayed for several more weeks. His family was among the waves of Afghans arriving in such large numbers that they were placed inThere the waiting continued. They spent long days eager to start earning money and build a new home, but thinking about the bitter realities of what they left behind: their family, their culture, a country once again taken over by a regime of Islamic fundamentalists.Now that Afghans have been moved into permanent apartments, conditions have improved considerably, though emotions are mixed for Jahadullah’s family. His wife has been dealing with chronic stomach pain - symptoms he believes are related to being culturally isolated. “She's depressed a lot,” he said. “My children and my wife are so bored here, they are not going out.” It’s clear, one year later, the pain of leaving family and friends behind is still fresh. But as with the 1.6 million immigrants in the region, new homes and new lives are forged in Houston. The Afghans will adjust to the city, and the city will adjust around them. For Aziz, an evacuated Afghan who asked to go by his first name only for fear of risk to his family members still in Afghanistan, the adjustment has also been difficult. As an English speaker with a smaller family — he and his wife have a daughter and are anticipating their new son — it’s been easier for him to manage the challenges on his own. But both he and Jahadullah have often felt moments of isolation and abandonment during the adjustment process. At one point he called up YMCA International Services, his resettlement agency, asking for help because he lost his visa and his wife’s social security card. He was surprised by what they told him. “You can speak English and the case managers are very busy and you can do it on your own,” Aziz said the agency told him. Whether it was fixing the paperwork problems, getting a driver’s license, or something else, every single process has required a tedious series of steps that were unfamiliar to Aziz. He said he’s never experienced automated customer service before. “You can directly call a person but here in America if you make a call, it will give you too many choices,” he said. As difficult as it may have been to navigate, Aziz is well on his way to adjusting to a new life in the U.S. with his growing family. But navigating new cultural expectations, complicated bureaucracies and a car-centric transportation system has been harder on families that struggle with English and literacy. Omer Yousafzai owns Afghan Village, a restaurant that is a hub of the Afghan community, making him privy to the struggles and successes of the recently arrived evacuees. He’s seen many families flourish in their new homes. “I'm talking about a day-and-night difference from the days that they were in hotels, temporary housing,” said Yousafzai. “A vast majority started working. A big percentage also bought their own vehicles, and they drive themselves back and forth to work.” Yousafzai said he’s even met some Afghans who are already looking to start businesses, especially in transportation, and are able to be picky about the jobs they accept.Yousafzai also acknowledges that a smaller percentage of families may be facing more of an uphill battle, especially those with limited literacy — some do not know how to read in their native languages, let alone English. “That makes it even harder for them to communicate with people. They cannot even save a number in their own contacts,” he said. Though the adults may struggle with English, Yousafzai said their children — already enrolled in Houston-area schools — are soaking up the language like sponges and are already helping their parents interpret.Once heavily overworked case managers are also freeing up to follow up with the Afghan families with more needs.to take on the logistical nightmare of welcoming a crush of incoming Afghans. While providing services to refugees is nothing new for these agencies, the sheer number of people coming over the course of a just few months was like drinking from a firehose. “We were drowning,” said YMCA International Services refugee coordinator Kerry Spare. “In one month we resettled over half the number that we would resettle in a large year.” YMCA and the four other refugee resettlement agencies in Houston took on a host of responsibilities, along with their community partners - veterans, interfaith groups, volunteers. They greeted families at the airport, found and moved them into affordable housing, coordinated incoming community donations, signed them up for public benefits, brought them to job interviews, enrolled kids in school, helped them get their driver’s licenses. The agency group chats would sound at all hours of the day with urgent needs like last-minute trips to CVS to pick up medication or meeting folks for a doctor’s appointment. At his apartment, Jahadullah pulls out a monthly energy bill for nearly $500 — a recent headache his family has dealt with. He was able to get help from YMCA to pay for it, for now. But he said he’s concerned about what happens next — his family received their final resettlement check from the federal government. He’s one of many Afghan families being phased out of these benefits, as is standard in the refugee resettlement process. Jahadullah has a promising new job at a local cookie company. With the $12 an hour he earns from that, he’ll rely on food stamps and other government support to provide for the 11 of them. But the bills are adding up — $1,350 in rent, his car payment, and other expenses. “I’m very worried about everything,” he said, though he feels he’s finally starting to adapt to the cultural differences. He’s in the midst of growing pains — challenges that he hopes will ultimately lead his children to a better life and education in the United States. On Jahadullah’s front door, a piece of spiral notebook paper has been colored to be the Afghan flag and taped above his door number. He explained that he recently went to a local park with other Afghans for a cultural meet-up, where they took photos with their Afghan flags and shared their experiences. Beyond the government aid, the donations, the case management, he’s found the resource that builds resilience — community.
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