‘Rhode Island people helped me,’ Afghan refugee giving back to community | ABC6

PROVIDENCE, RI (WLNE) — Hassinullah Niazy was beginning his third yr at Kabul Polytechnic College when the Taliban took management of the Afghan authorities. He remembers the airport, crawling with worldwide army officers, and he remembers the chaos.

“The times that we got here in a foreign country, it was like everybody was operating for his or her lives,” Niazy instructed ABC6 Information.

Accompanied by his brother and uncle, he embarked on a journey that included 55 days in resettlement camps in Germany, adopted by time in US army bases in Virginia. It will be 105 days in complete earlier than arriving in Cumberland, Rhode Island.

“It was the form of journey the place you don’t know the place you’ll go, what’s the destiny, what’s the future, what’s the vacation spot,” he mentioned.

When Niazy and his brother arrived in December 2021, there have been only a few Afghan households in Rhode Island who knew what they’d been by way of. Although Niazy was blissful to be in the USA, the next months required loads of adjustment.

“The whole lot right here is completely different,” he mentioned, citing the clothes, the tradition, and the customs. “Rhode Island individuals helped me. They handled me like their member of the family. I didn’t really feel that I used to be a wierd particular person right here or that I’m a refugee.”

Now, over 300 Afghans have settled within the state.

“We are attempting to be collectively,” Niazy mentioned. “We’re planning for an Afghan group in Rhode Island.”

Niazy just lately began work at Dorcas Worldwide as a coaching and schooling navigator, serving to different Afghans study English and develop into self-sufficient by way of profession and know-how coaching.

“Schooling is essential…” he exclaimed with a smile, “For everybody!”

Niazy now lives in Windfall along with his brother, whereas his uncle’s household has settled in Oregon.

He doesn’t know if he’ll ever return to the nation the place he grew up, however the remainder of his fast household are all nonetheless there. He mentioned that he’s apprehensive about them, however it’s troublesome to maintain up with every little thing.

“All of the explosions… individuals die, each day, ” Niazy defined.

Niazy added that the world wants to concentrate to all individuals residing in areas of battle, no matter who they’re, their nationality, or their faith. His resounding message: “Humanity issues.”

“The individuals of Afghanistan, Palestine, Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, we’ve to assist them… as a result of they’re people. They’re the identical individuals, as me, as you. Everybody has to stay in peace, everybody has to check, everybody has to go for his or her desires,” he mentioned.

As for Niazy’s personal desires, “I wish to develop into a well-known laptop engineer, not in response to the nation or the group, everywhere in the world. That’s what I’m working for. I wish to end college, to make a very good profession, and make a very good life.”

For extra data on Dorcas Worldwide and for tactics to assist refugees in Rhode Island, go to their web site.