Basir Akrami had only been in the United States for five days when he stood outside World Relief’s office in Memphis and was greeted by Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, County Commission Chairman Willie Brooks Jr. and Commissioner Mark Billingsley.
“As a Shelby County Commissioner and a native of Memphis, Basir, we want to welcome you to Memphis,” Billingsley told Akrami. “We want to welcome your family. We hope that you make a wonderful home here in Shelby County. With the help of World Relief, we’re going to be helping more families like this here.”
A refugee from Afghanistan, Akrami worked as an interpreter and security guard for the U.S. embassy in Kabul before being forced to flee the country with his wife and two daughters.
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