Close your eyes. Picture yourself 7,000 miles from your homeland, doing difficult, manual labor in a factory. You’re working to learn the language and someday hope to use your education as a medical professional to serve in the medical field. Right now though, you are manufacturing wire and are at the mercy of expensive and sometimes unreliable ride-sharing services to get to and from work.
This is the daily reality for an Afghan family that immigrated to Nebraska in late 2021.
This is the daily reality for an Afghan family that immigrated to Nebraska in late 2021.
The goal of this GoFundMe is to purchase a vehicle for an Afghan refugee family we are helping to sponsor and to cover the first-year costs of insurance, registration, gas, and associated fees. Any additional funds raised will go directly to the family to use at their discretion.
We met Z and S (names anonymized, per their request) in March of 2022. We walked into their apartment in Lincoln, holding a hastily purchased house plant to thank them for hosting us, not knowing what to expect. We entered the living room to find a wonderful spread of Afghan food laid out on a tablecloth on the floor. We asked our sons to follow their lead and sat down on the floor, ready to make new friends while experiencing another culture.
How did we all get here?
In 2021, our family began volunteering with the Refugee Empowerment Center, where we committed to sponsoring refugees fleeing the Taliban. We didn’t know when that sponsorship would happen or who it would be.
The N family arrived from Afghanistan in November of 2021. The father was a nurse, the mother a midwife, and two boys of high school age. They fled Afghanistan with a suitcase each, and even those were lost in transit. Our volunteer team immediately provided support with clothing, household goods, and gift cards.
That night in March, we finally met in person. Over rice, dates, and walnuts, we learned Z and S had found work. They were employed together at a wire manufacturing factory outside of Lincoln. There was no public transportation to the factory, so they had to take Ubers an hour in each direction. Their rides never showed up a few times, and they were warned that they could lose those entry-level jobs if it became a pattern.
We walked away from that dinner with a mission: the N family needed a car. They need the independence offered by a driver's license and vehicle. They are learning English to become a part of the community. And to be car-less in suburban Nebraska is the biggest obstacle we could see to their success.
Your donations will impact a family with the kindest hearts and the most welcoming spirit. Thank you in advance for contributing!
With gratitude,
Stephanie, Brian, Kathy, Hannah, and Jennifer
More on Afghans resettling in the US