Muzhgan Azizy escaped Kabul just weeks before the swift Taliban takeover and chaotic U.S. evacuation, but adjusting to her new freedom in America has been difficult.
Muzghan Azizy escaped Kabul and resettled in northern Virginia weeks before the Taliban takeover.
The hardest part for Azizy is worrying about her elderly parents, who lived with her in Afghanistan and depend on her financially and emotionally. They weren't able to come with her because under U.S. law, since she is married, they don't qualify as"immediate family" under the SIV program."So that's why I couldn't bring them, but I left them all alone," she said, trying to hold back tears.
"But I will say that I am grateful for all the challenges," Azizy added."When I first came into the United States like, the safety, the feeling of safety, security and freedom, hit us differently. So, I am grateful."Azizy's outlook on life in the U.S. got better, she says, when she started working with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service , the largest national faith-based nonprofit in the U.S. exclusively dedicated to serving immigrants and refugees.
LIRS says its welcome centers are intended to fill gaps that other institutions can't by offering mental health screenings, connections to health care providers, legal services, and referrals to community services such as food banks, faith communities and schools.Diapers for new refugees are stacked behind a desk at the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service's newly-launched resettlement office at Peach Lutheran Church in Alexandria, Va., Dec. 16, 2021.
Hamidi says her own background as a double refugee, offers a helpful perspective for new refugees she meets, adding that when she started working she was happy but"surprised" to see that"every room I looked into – there were Afghans."Krish O'Mara Vignarajah – president and CEO of LIRS, who, as a young child, fled a civil war in Sri Lanka in 1980 with her family and came to the U.S.
With clients and employees who share a common experience, LIRS offers a special necessity for new arrivals -- human beings who understand.Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service hosts a ribbon-cutting ceremony of the organization’s newly-launched resettlement office inside Peach Lutheran Church in Alexandria, Va., Dec. 16, 2021.With 30,000 Afghans still on U.S.
LIRS expects to host a job fair in the Peace Lutheran Church space in the coming months for recent refugees and to lease a warehouse nearby to house donations, where refugees can"shop" for basic items like clothes, diapers, books and toys.
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