Resettling Afghan Refugees
PBS NewsHour Weekend | 7min
Postproduction Script
Mike Cerre:
Looking out over California’s Silicon Valley, the Fazili
family could have landed on another planet since leaving Afghanistan.
Sarah Fazili, Afghan Refugee: And when we received in the United States and
especially in California, we are so happy because we are safe.
Mike Cerre:
Just a few months ago, the Fazilis were caught in the
Afghanistan evacuation nightmare. They recorded this video during a Taliban shootout
at their apartment building which killed a neighbor and spent three days of
terror outside the Kabul Airport waiting for a flight out,
and sheltering their young daughters from the gunfire in a drainage
ditch.
The Fazilis’ first two months in the U.S. were spent in a
military holding camp at Fort Bliss, Texas living in a tent. Until they
completed their visa applications and vaccinations and were finally allowed to
travel to the San Francisco Bay Area to resettle. The Bay Area has the
country’s largest Afghan population. It’s also one of the country’s most
expensive and tightest housing markets.
Madeena Siddiqui, Afghan Coalition: I cannot let my Afghan people just be on the
street. I was helping in a week about five, six families,
now that's increasing by the double, and that's going to increase as well.
Mike Cerre: Madeena Siddiqui, a first generation Afghan American and
volunteer for the local Afghan Coalition, was
able to get the Fazilis a hotel room for their
first night and an Airbnb apartment in Hayward, CA just south of Oakland for
the next thirty days, until they can find long-term housing.
Ayisha Irfan, Airbnb.org: Nationally, Airbnb.org is committing to
temporarily house 20,000 Afghan refugees as they look for longer term options
to permanently resettle in the United States.
Mike Cerre: Ayisha Irfan
oversees Airbnb.org’s humanitarian grants. She is one
of the first calls the resettlement agencies make for new arrivals, like the Fazilis, often with less than a few days advance notice of
their arrivals with no place to stay.
Ayisha Irfan: Over
6,600 hosts globally have committed to this cause of offering their homes to
Afghan newcomers.
Aisha
Wahab: Wherever
you place an Afghan in the United States, they're going to want to travel to an
Afghan hub. These hubs are the Bay Area, potentially L.A., Seattle, D.C.
Virginia area and New York City.
Mike Cerre:
Hayward Councilwoman Aisha Wahab is the country’s first Afghan
American woman elected to public office. She knows firsthand the
challenges the local Afghan community has faced since they first started
migrating here in the ‘80s and ‘90s after the Soviet occupation and Afghan
Civil War. People like store owner Freshta Khwaja.
Freshta Khwaja, Market Owner: We try to make them as comfortable as possible
because we went through the same thing. They should be very, very lucky that we
are here and helping them. But forty five years
before, none of this was available.
Aisha
Wahab: When it
comes to being able to translate or interpret or explain cultural nuances and
really engage with the new arrivals, the Afghan American community that grew up
here in the Bay Area would be able to help step up significantly.
Laila
Mir: When
the whole Afghan crisis happened, all Afghans, my family and I, we were pretty devastated. We were trying to do everything we could
to help.
Mike Cerre: Laila
Mir, a former accountant and financial advisor, is now cooking and delivering
each week nearly a hundred home cooked Afghan meals for the refugees, with help
from Shef, a regional online food service
specializing in ethnic cuisines.
Laila
Mir, Shef: Preparing a meal and giving back is also a
part of my family and culture. I think Afghans we love to feed will feed
complete strangers. If we know there's somebody in our community. We will make
sure there's food on their table.
Mike Cerre: Each
meal comes with a note.
Laila
Mir: Dear
fellow Afghans, Peace and blessings be upon you. Welcome to the United States.
I hope that you enjoy this food.
Mike Cerre: As to
be expected, the larger local Muslim community is playing a major role in
raising money, clothing donations and other services for the new Afghan
arrivals. Aminah Abdullah heads up the Muslim Community Center in Pleasanton
working together with other local mosques.
Aminah
Abdullah, Muslim Community Center: I think it stems from our faith, our duty to
serve and take care of those in need and the Afghan crisis just gave us an oopportunity for us to do what we are supposed to do.
Mike Cerre: So too
are the other mostly faith-based resettlement agencies like the local Jewish
Family Services in Oakland.
Aisha
Wahab: It does
not surprise me because I think faith-based communities have always stepped up
and their number one key principle, regardless of religion, is humanity. I will
say that the Jewish community has stepped up probably the most. But they have
historically stepped up for Afghans. Even the Afghan Coalition was founded by a
grant of $10,000 by one of the Jewish organizations.
Fundraiser: Is there one generous person who will commit to
$15,000, inshallah, for our brothers and sisters
in Afghanistan?
Mike Cerre: Afghan refugee fundraisers
like this one at a local Afghan banquet hall are also raising
funds for their Afghan relatives still wanting to leave and trying to
survive the Afghan winter, now that fuel and food imports have been cut along
with foreign aid.
Aisha
Wahab: And
why should we help these new arrivals? Because they served the United States
military. They were promised that if you serve the United States military, with
the risk of death in Afghanistan, you would be able to come to the United
States.
Sarah Fazili: We want to leave Afghanistan and we don't have
any intention about where we want to go and when or which city of America. Just
we want to leave Afghanistan because the situation is so bad.
Mike Cerre: How
important is it to have the Afghan community around you? Do you feel a bit more
at home because there are people from your culture living close by?
Sarah Fazili: I'm Afghan, I love Afghan people and I'm so happy which
I am in this place and I'm near my Afghan people.
Mike Cerre: The
local Marine Corps Reserve unit’s annual “Toys
for Tots” campaign has added Afghan refugees to their holiday list of
needy families this year. The city of Fremont‘s Mayor
Lily Mei and Afghan American volunteers like Mena Adida
led the $10,000 toy shopping spree.
Mena Adida, Volunteer: This will be the ultimate surprise for them.
They’re struggling to get basic necessities and this
will be a huge treat for them and their families.
Mike Cerre: Especially for
families like the Fazilis this holiday season,
having recently arrived in the U.S. with no other possessions than the clothes
they were wearing.
####
|
TIMECODE |
LOWER
THIRD |
1 |
0:13 |
[L3 OVER SUBTITLE] SARAH FAZILI AFGHAN REFUGEE |
2 |
0:13 |
[SUBTITLE] AND WHEN WE RECEIVED IN THE UNITED STATES AND ESPECIALLY
IN CALIFORNIA, WE ARE SO HAPPY BECAUSE WE ARE SAFE. |
3 |
1:15 |
MADEENA SIDDIQUI AFGHAN COALITION |
4 |
2:12 |
AYISHA IRFAN AIRBNB.ORG |
5 |
2:56 |
FRESHTA KHWAJA MARKET OWNER |
6 |
3:12 |
AISHA WAHAB HAYWARD CITY COUNCIL MEMBER |
7 |
4:00 |
LAILA MIR |
8 |
4:37 |
AMINAH ABDULLAH MUSLIM COMMUNITY CENTER |
9 |
5:03 |
AISHA WAHAB HAYWARD CITY COUNCIL MEMBER |
10 |
5:55 |
[L3 OVER SUBTITLE] SARAH FAZILI AFGHAN REFUGEE |
11 |
5:55 |
[SUBTITLE] WE WANT TO LEAVE AFGHANISTAN AND WE DON’T HAVE ANY
INTENTION ABOUT WHERE WE WANT TO GO AND WHEN OR WHICH CITY OF AMERICA. |
12 |
6:05 |
[SUBTITLE] JUST WE WANT TO LEAVE AFGHANISTAN BECAUSE THE SITUATION IS
SO BAD. |
13 |
6:19 |
[SUBTITLE] I’M AFGHAN, I LOVE AFGHAN PEOPLE AND I’M SO HAPPY WHICH I
AM IN THIS PLACE AND I’M NEAR MY AFGHAN PEOPLE. |
14 |
6:50 |
MENA ADIDA VOLUNTEER |