Afghan Family Resettlement

Congregation Har HaShem is proud to support Najeb and Maryam and their children and hope you will join us.  

Najeb, who worked as a truck driver and mechanic for the US Army in Afghanistan for 8 years, fled with his family as the Taliban took over Kabul earlier this year. An Army major who worked with Najeb in Afghanistan was instrumental in bringing the family to the United States. Najeb, Maryam, and their boys came to Boulder, Colorado in late November after spending some weeks living on a US military base in Indiana where they were fully vetted by the State Department. We are so excited to have them here with us!  

Action You Can Take Now to Help:

1. Contribute financially.
2. Donate a cell phone. Email us at  resettlement@harhashem.org.
3. Volunteer with the family.

Najeb has been attending an eighty-hour, online truck driving school in order to obtain his Class A Commercial Driver’s License.  He completed the coursework on July 1 and passed all his written tests with flying colors.  Workforce paid several thousand dollars to support his efforts to complete this required school program.  The next step is the driving test that is scheduled for July 22, 2022.  When he passes that test, he will receive his license and be reading to apply for very well-paying jobs.  The Afghan Family Team continues to be very impressed with Najeb’s motivation, perseverance, and intelligence.  Whatever he does, he does well.

Meanwhile, he has been working for Andrew Frank-Martin, Har HaShem’s Facilities Supervisor, keeping our grounds looking nice.

Najeb and Maryam’s oldest child, Amrullah, had a joyous fourth birthday on June 29.  Mat Amin and his wife Aziza, close friends from Afghanistan who live in Lafayette, and their seven children, attended the party at Najeb and Maryam’s home, as did five volunteers from the Afghan Family Team, including congregants John and Lauren Park and their daughter Ella and Roxanne Bailin.  Amrullah’s two little brothers attended as well. The usual enormous amount of delicious food was served, and we taught them how to sing “Happy Birthday” and helped Amrullah blow out the candles.

Ramadan, a month of introspection and prayer for Muslims, started on April 2. During Ramadan, Nabeb and Maryam will fast from sunup to sundown. During this holy month, you may greet them by saying, "Ramadan Mubarak" which means "blessed Ramadan." The family continues to be very busy and to make tremendous progress:

• Misha Plam, a longtime member of Har HaShem and a Russian refugee who arrived with his wife, Olga, and son, Yegor, in 1977, died in late February. His widow, Olga, donated their 2016 Subaru Forester to our Afghan family. The car was registered on March 28 and reasonable, high-quality insurance was obtained. The vehicle has only 15,000 miles on it and accommodates three car seats! Olga noted that they were refugees and that donating the car to our refugee family brought things full circle.
• Najeb and Maryam toured the JCC pre-school and the Boulder Head Start pre-school. Their oldest child will be four this June and will be ready to attend pre-school in August.  The new baby, born in late February, is doing very well. The family members are all still going to Clinica for medical and dental visits.
• Najeb has applied for green cards for himself, Maryam, and the two older children (the baby is a U.S. citizen!), which allows them to become permanent residents. We have an appointment to get the baby an American passport.
• Najeb met with Workforce Boulder County and it’s likely he will be able to take a Commercial Driver's License class to become a truck driver soon.
• The CU International English Center has designed intensive English classes especially for the Afghan men and women in our refugee families. The women do not know how to read or write in their native languages, and will be starting English at a basic level. The classes for the women are being held at the Boulder JCC in donated space with childcare available. The men’s classes are at the Mapleton YMCA in Boulder. The Boulder County Afghan Resettlement Task Force has secured grant funding from the State for the first 16 weeks of classes (4 hours per week), but it is anticipated that an additional 24 weeks of classes will be needed.
• We plan to have a one-hour cultural orientation on Afghanistan in late April, led by Dr Jennifer Fluorian, an expert from the CU Department of Geography. All congregants will be invited to this orientation.

Current Needs for the Family

• Female volunteers are needed to help transport Maryam and the baby to and from her English classes at the Boulder JCC on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm. If you can help with transportation, please email: resettlement@harhashem.org.
• We need a crew of people to help spruce up the yard for the family and help plant a vegetable garden this spring. We are thinking this might be a nice way to celebrate Earth Day (which is April 22). If you would like to be part of this gardening crew, please email: resettlement@harhashem.org.

First of all, I want to say hello to all of you. Some of you know me already, and some are meeting me for the first time. 
I will tell you my and my family’s story, but first I want to introduce myself to you. My name is Najebulah Arab. I am 31 years old. I am here with my wife, Maryam, and three sons.

I studied law and graduated from Alfala University, in Jalalabad on Nangarhar Province. At the same time I was going to the university, I worked for 9 years at different jobs in an American military camp in Afghanistan. 

At first, I worked as a driver for an Afghan company which was hired directly by the US military. After that I was hired by the camp’s service operations as a supervisor. I was responsible for all 35 people who provided all the services to the camp. This included laundry services, insuring the camp had clean water, and that the dirty used water along with the garbage was transported out of the camp. At the same time, the US Army was providing supplies to other camps. At that time, I was driving for them. Additionally, I was hired by the camp to maintain the trucks used by the soldiers and locals. 

I am very proud of my job for the US military, the trust they placed in me, and the many commendations and recommendations I received as base operations supervisor. I still miss my job. As proud as I was of my job, it was also the cause of problems for my family. 

One day, some bad people called my family and threatened them. They said that I was a spy for the American troops. My father and my brothers explained I was not a spy, I was just working there. But it didn’t work. 
Time passed and one day as I was returning to my house, there were some bad people who were either waiting for me, or had followed me home. As I arrived at my door, they shot me in the chest. I still have the bullet inside me. My family took me to the hospital. When I woke up, my family told me the story.

I knew this was a problem. So I left my province and moved to Kabul, because everyone in my province knew me, and that I worked in the military camps. In Kabul, no one knew me. I thought it would be safer for me and my family. 
When the Taliban took over the country, and the country collapsed, my family and I were in great danger. 

Fortunately, I know Major Chris, because he was working at the same camp in 2014. A friend of mine contacted Major Chris, who was here in the states and told him about our situation. Major Chris contacted someone in Kabul, and he gave our name and our numbers to someone who could help us. 

Major Chris is my family’s hero, because he protected me and my family’s life. Also, I am proud of my Har HaShem congregation members. 

Sometime later, someone called us and told us to go to a certain gate at the airport. My friend and I and our families left for the airport and waited with hundreds of thousands of people outside the gate. 

We were lucky! We were called to enter the airport. They took us into a military C17 transport plane. There were about 500 people in the plane but no seats. We were flown to Qatar. Our first stop on our way to a country I could not even imagine. We spent 4 days there in a military camp. 

From Qatar, we were flown to a military camp in Germany, where we spent about two months, and then to the US. We stopped in DC on our way to Indiana. America seemed so very nice. We were treated well at the airport. In Indiana, we were again in a military camp. We were processed there, and after 2 months, we left for Boulder, Colorado. 

Why Boulder, Colorado? Because Major Chris was here. And he told our story to Lutheran Family Services and to you, Har HaShem. And because of you, I have a home for my family. I am so very thankful. I feel very good here, like I am at home. I feel safe here. Our future will be good here. I am really optimistic for my kids’ future. 

I am so happy and thankful to this congregation. You have provided all the material things we need to live here, but you have provided something more, friendship. Something we need because we left all our family and friends in Afghanistan. 
I don’t know what will happen to my friends and my family in Afghanistan.

But I do hope that I will be successful here. Then I can help my family there. They need this help very badly. There, I have 23 family members in one house, including my parents and my brothers and their families. My brothers have lost their jobs, my parents are old, and my country is suffering a great famine. Besides the 23 family members who live together, I have 5 living sisters, the sixth passed away. I worry for them too. My family is facing financial and food issues to survive. So you see, I must succeed. 

I am very thankful for the help I have received from my teachers to improve my English. This is important for me and my family’s future. My English teachers are my future, for my future life in the USA. I am thankful to all who have helped me, but some are very special, like Major Chris, who helped me get out of Afghanistan, and Elizabeth, Lauren, Roxanne, Judith, and Jim for whom I have special appreciation. 

To all of you, members of this congregation, I thank you for all your help. It has made a big difference in my and my family’s life. I am at your service. Any question you have about me or my family, you can ask any time.
 

We are thrilled to announce that Najeb and Maryam welcomed a baby boy (6 lbs 14 oz) on January 26, 2022. Both mom and baby are doing great and the whole family is settling into a new routine at home on the HHS campus. The family has applied for a birth certificate for this brand new U.S. citizen! Thank you to everyone who contributed baby items from the registry – the family has felt extremely emotional and grateful for the outpouring of support and well wishes from our community.
 
Although the family will now pause to focus on their new addition, they had been extremely busy before the baby’s arrival.
 
Najeb has obtained his driver’s license permit! He studied for his permit with his ESL tutor and passed his written test with a score of 84%! He has had several driving lessons with a HHS volunteer and is ready to take his driver’s test. As a driver for the Army in Afghanistan, Najeb has excellent skills, but as he put it, “There are no traffic lights in Afghanistan!” This is the first step towards eventually obtaining a commercial driver’s license for employment.
 
With the help of the Afghan Family Resettlement Team and many HHS volunteers, during the last month, the family has also:
 

• All attended medical and dental check-ups at Clinica Family Health.
• Received their Social Security Cards.
• Received Medicaid and SNAP (food stamp) benefits.
• Received free internet services through a program for low-income households.
• Applied for WIC (Women, Infants and Children program that provides free milk and cereals for children up to 2).
• Received a free year’s membership for the whole family at Boulder County Recreation Centers.
• Had several playdates with young HHS families.
• Participated in ESL sessions several times a week in their home and signed up for virtual English classes through Intercambio.
• Received donated bikes and helmets (Najeb now rides to the Islamic Center for prayers on Fridays and to the Safeway for groceries).
• Gone on a field trip to Arash International Market and several other Afghan markets in Aurora to purchase halal meat and other staples.
• Gone sledding for the first time ever at Scott Carpenter Park!

 
Several HHS volunteers will soon start working with Najeb on money management and financial literacy. We have a whole team of HHS volunteers who are working on employment opportunities for Najeb. We are starting to think about pre-school in the Fall for the oldest boy. And we have many young HHS families with small children who have volunteered to be playdate, walking, and playground friends as the latest COVID wave eases and the weather warms up (we can always use more volunteer families, especially with young boys!).
 
Thank you to everyone who has volunteered to help and support this family. If you would like to get involved, please reach out to  resettlement@harhashem.org.
 
We also welcome monetary contributions to help support the family as they make a new life in the U.S. You can donate funds directly to the family for future use at their discretion. Or you can make a tax-deductible gift to Congregation Har HaShem to reimburse Har HaShem for the family's housing expenses, including rent and utilities. Go to Support Our Afghan Family for more details on both options and to make a monetary gift.

I am thrilled to share some wonderful news.

The Board of Trustees of Congregation Har HaShem has offered our Baseline house to a family fleeing Afghanistan. We expect Najeb, Maryam and their children, Amrullah (3) and Naseebullah (2), to move in in mid-December. We’re partnering with Lutheran Family Services and a local effort to bring Afghan refugees to Boulder County. Below, I’ll tell you more and how you can help.

Here’s the background
Several months ago, Roxanne Bailin, Lauren Park and Elizabeth Freedman began exploring how we might offer safe harbor to an Afghan refugee family. They met U.S. Army Major Chris Liggett who was rescuing his Afghan interpreter from Afghanistan. Chris has resettled Matiullah and his family of ten in Lafayette. Learn more about Chris, Mattiulah, and their network of helpers here. 

Najeb worked with Chris and Mattiullah as a truck driver for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. He and his family have been living on a military base in Indiana where they have been fully vetted by the State Department. We understand that Najeb speaks some English. Maryam and the two children do not.

Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountain will help us with the family’s initial integration, securing Social Security numbers and some benefits. 

How you can help
It will take a community effort to settle this family in their new home. Our Brotherhood and Faith Furnishings have outfitted the Baseline house, except for some baby items. Andrew Frank-Martin, our Facilities Supervisor, is fixing things up for our new residents.

We know many of you will want to get involved. To help, review our needs below and send an email with your interest to resettlement@harhashem.org.

• Orientation and Assistance
  Everything will be new to this family — from the washing machine and bus system, to self checkout and the library. We’re especially looking for families with young children who will visit the family regularly, host them for dinner in their own homes, go for walks and to the playground. We also need individuals to help them enroll in local services and programs, establish bank accounts and phone numbers, learn English and more. 
   
• Employment
  We need a small team to help Najeb obtain a Commercial Driver’s License, receive job training, and find work opportunities. 
   
• Financial Support
  We need your assistance with the family’s rent and living expenses until they have sufficient, stable income. Give to the Tikkun Olam Fund here and enter “resettlement” into the payment notes.
   
• Household Items
  We are creating and will share a registry of items you can donate or purchase. We will share a link soon. 

Welcoming Najeb and his family reflects our commitment to help the stranger, builds on our history of assisting Russian and Sudanese refugees, and expresses our desire to make the world a better place. It emerges from this summer’s conversations about our houses and our shared desire to make safe choices about our campus.  

I hope you agree with me that this work goes to the core of who we are. 

May we all have much to give thanks for and, together, return abundant light to the world this season,

Marianne Balin