Vermont

Afghans helping Afghans: Case workers in Burlington outline their struggle to respond to federal funding freeze – VTDigger

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1 year ago

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February 23, 2025

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Afghans helping Afghans: Case workers in Burlington outline their struggle to respond to federal funding freeze – VTDigger

Drukhshan Farhad is a program worker at the Vermont Afghan Alliance in Burlington. Seen on Thursday, Feb. 20. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

BURLINGTON— At 17, he was on the front lines in Afghanistan, shoulder to shoulder with foreign soldiers, fighting America’s longest war.

Now he is a case worker at the Vermont Afghan Alliance teaching new refugees how to drive and helping with translation and interpretation.

Originally from Herat in Afghanistan, Hamed Noorzai didn’t know how to drive when he arrived in the United States in October 2023. But when he saw a driving instructor job advertised by the alliance, he applied. Then he hopped into the Toyota Corolla the alliance uses for training, learned the ropes and got his license.

Since then he has helped roughly 40 people secure their driver licenses in Vermont.

That driving program stalled last month in the aftermath of a Jan. 21 White House memo freezing federal funding for refugee support.

“Since then, we’ve faced a rollercoaster of uncertainty,” said Molly Gray, executive director of the Afghan Alliance, a small Burlington-based nonprofit. “We’ve had to prepare for a future where we go without federal funding. We’ve had to revise our budget for 2025, let a staff member go, and urgently seek new sources of funding.”

The organization, which started in 2022 as a scrappy volunteer-led effort with locally raised dollars, was one of 15 nationwide to win a three-year $256,000 Ethnic Community Self Help grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2023. That money helped open an office, hire Afghan program officers and provide direct services to the Afghan community statewide, Gray said. The alliance now has seven paid staff offering services ranging from English and driving lessons to training on legal rights and citizenship. And, Gray estimated, it has helped more than 200 of the estimated 600 Afghans relocated in Vermont.

The Trump administration’s recent halt on refugee arrivals from Afghanistan and Pakistan and the funding freeze represent “a shameful, systematic abandonment of those who risked their lives in support of U.S. military and diplomatic missions,” Gray said in an email today.

She learned of the funding freeze when she tried to log into the federal payment management system on Jan. 28.

They weren’t able to access the system for three weeks, she said Thursday. Access has since resumed thanks to a temporary restraining order put in place by a federal court judge in Rhode Island. A hearing on the case — in which Vermont is a plaintiff along with more than 20 other states — took place Friday, though the judge’s order is not expected immediately.

Meanwhile, the future is uncertain for initiatives such as the driving program, which helped 35 Afghans get their licenses last year, 10 of whom were women.

On the front lines

For Noorzai, the Trump administration’s actions are a slap in the face. But he chose his words carefully during an interview this week. He talked about honor. And he talked about betrayal.

“I was a good fighter. I was translating Taliban passwords in radio chats,” he said. His work on the frontlines in Kandahar helped save dozens of American lives, he estimated.

Afghans like himself supported America for two decades so helping the Afghans who have made huge sacrifices and are here now would be the honorable thing for America to do, he said.

Noorzai, 32, didn’t finish school and his family didn’t know he had joined the military. And it was his American brothers in the military who helped him escape after the country was overtaken by the Taliban, he said.

He said he loves his American friends. That feeling doesn’t extend to the current federal government.

He once dreamed of being a doctor. Someday he hopes he can follow that dream. For now, Noorzai said he is happy he is helping other Afghans improve their lives and take a step towards independence by learning how to drive in Vermont.

His colleague at the Afghan Alliance, Drukhshan Farhad, also takes deep pride in the work she does to help fellow Afghans. Again, it is not without some conflict.

“There are days when I think, is my work really helping people or am I making them co-dependent,” said the 27-year-old program officer.