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Until she came to the United States in 2019, Rezvan had been a refugee for her entire life.

She considers Afghanistan to be her home country, but she was born in Iran and grew up in Turkey.

“Our whole lives were like moving from city to city or from country to country.”

Rezvan’s mother and father fled Afghanistan to Iran during the Soviet-Afghan war.

After Rezvan’s father died in Iran, her mother decided to move the family to Turkey to protect her daughters and provide them with more opportunities.

“My father died in Iran, and then, after my father died, we decided to move from Iran to Turkey because all of us were young, and my mom [wanted to protect us].” Rezvan’s mother wanted a better life for her daughters than what she could foresee in Iran or Afghanistan.

Devastation After The Fall

According to the Human Rights Watch, “Taliban rule has had a devastating impact on Afghan women and girls.” The Taliban has created barriers to women’s health and education and curtailed their freedom of movement and expression. While Taliban rule is new since the fall of Kabul one year ago, many of these Taliban abuses were already present throughout the country years before.

According to UNICEF, child marriage is also on the rise in Afghanistan.

We have received credible reports of families offering daughters as young as 20 days old up for future marriage in return for a dowry.

Even before the latest political instability, UNICEF’s partners registered 183 child marriages and 10 cases of selling of children over 2018 and 2019 in Herat and Baghdis provinces alone. The children were between 6 months and 17 years of age.

UNICEF estimates that 28 per cent of Afghan women aged 15–49 years were married before the age of 18. (unicef.org)

Rezvan and her family lived in Turkey for 8 years, from the time Rezvan was 14 until she was 22. She finished high school and college there.

“When I was in Turkey, I had some friends from Italy. They are my second mom and dad. They support me a lot. They worked in Turkey with refugees for 25 years. They taught me how to help people. I decided to help refugees in Turkey, and then I taught Turkish language to refugees for five years.”

Rezvan speaks Persian (called Dari when spoken in Afghanistan), Turkish, and as she says, “English a little bit, and I can understand a little bit of Arabic.”

Rezvan’s sister came to the US five years before Rezvan and her mom, and her sister connected Rezvan to World Relief while she was still in Turkey. “They helped us a lot. They gave us a caseworker. Now, I am a caseworker.” Rezvan’s experiences have created within her a strong desire to give back. She knows how important it is to meet a friendly face, to have someone to walk alongside you.

Working in Heaven

“World Relief is like heaven. When you come inside World Relief, when you see the people’s faces in World Relief, you can see kindness in their heart.”

Rezvan now serves refugees during their first 90 days of arrival in the US. She welcomes them at the airport, helps them bridge the language barrier and connect with resources. In connection with her teammates, she helps them find housing and employment and enroll their children in school, as well as navigating public transportation, shopping and all the other details of daily life.

“You know, because I spent all my life as a refugee, so when I see a refugee come here, I see myself and my family. We had a hard life. I don’t want the refugees when the come here… I want them to have a good life here. I want to help them like those two people that taught me how to help people.

“Those are my beautiful lessons in my life.

“When I help people, I feel something. It’s hard to describe… Before, when I came to World Relief, I thought maybe I had a heavy thing on my back, but when you help people, you are just like…free. It’s like something is going to be free from your body. When I am here, I feel very, very well.”

“My mom was so grateful. Even for the littlest things, she would say, ‘Thank you God!’ She would appreciate everything.”

Anzhella (she goes by Angela here in the United States because people often have trouble pronouncing her given name correctly) came to the US when she was six years old. In addition to a twin sister, her parents had three more children at the time, and her mom was pregnant with her second pair of twins. After their arrival and before World Relief set them up with housing, they all lived at her grandparents’ house, along with a variety of other relatives who had arrived in the US.

“One huge family at my grandma’s house.” Her overwhelming memory of that time, however, is not chaos, but joy.

“When we got here in 2000, my parents were the happiest people in the world. There was a huge group of people at the airport to greet us. We could go to school, have religious freedom, and opportunities. My parents were excited to make that happen for us because there wasn’t much future for us in Ukraine.”

Angela and her family came from the Ukraine through the Lautenberg Program, a special program created in 1990 to allow family members currently in the US to bring their relatives from the former Soviet Union to resettle in the US as refugees. The program, which focuses on freedom from religious persecution, is still in effect today. It closes every year on September 30 and must be re-approved on an annual basis.

Angela said her family arrived with very little. “World Relief gave us furniture and clothing. Clothing was huge for us because we didn’t have the right clothes for the season when we arrived. They set us up with housing and connected us to Habitat for Humanity so that we could build our first house in the US; a place we can truly call home.”

A New Community

Perhaps the biggest gift, however, was that World Relief connected Angela’s family with a case manager, Alla Derevenchuk, who in turn connected Angela’s family with a school Support Specialist, Sandi Solverson, who became a lifelong friend. “It was a perfect match.” Like Angela and her two little brothers, Sandi was also a twin and connected quickly with the family. Angela’s mom was so grateful to have someone she could call to help navigate life in this country. Sandi would notice what the family lacked, and she would help them acquire those things by connecting them with available resources. “She always set us up with resources like the Christmas Bureau, back-to-school supplies, vouchers for shoes, and so much more! We still keep in touch.” Sandy came to her sisters’ weddings among other events. “She was someone my mom trusted, and that gave her peace of mind during the chaos of resettlement.

“My parents’ goal was to work hard and make a better life for us; so that we had the opportunity to get an education and good jobs instead of ‘toiling in the sun’ the way they did.” Her parents both worked and went to school to learn English. After about five years, her father, who is an entrepreneur, started his own trucking company. “When the market crashed and the business closed, he didn’t give up there. He opened up an adult family home which has been running for 12 years now.”

Joining the Team

After getting her Bachelor’s degree in social work, Angela came to work for World Relief. As the Initial Healthcare Coordinator, she makes certain that new arrivals are set up with health insurance. She navigates the Washington Health Plan Finder for health insurance, secures a State ID card for each person and coordinates refugee health screenings. For pregnant women and moms with young children, she makes sure they get set up with WIC. And for elderly patients, she helps them apply for SSI.

“I didn’t know how hard it can be to coordinate so many different areas of a person’s life.”

Angela does all of her work behind the scenes before a family arrives – reading their medical records, researching their needs, and coordinating with healthcare providers for a smooth transition into the US healthcare system. “I want to be prepared ahead of time so that families receive the care they desperately need right away.”

Angela said one of her favorite Bible verses is Matthew 7:12, the golden rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

“When I meet new immigrants and refugees, I want to give them everything I can so they can succeed.”

When I asked Angela what made her want to do this work, she referred again to her mom: “I remember hearing how thankful my mom was for all the resources. We wouldn’t have been able to get to where we are today without those, and that’s why I wanted to help others. Nothing makes me happier. My mom had that happiness when she helped other people who came here after us, and my dad when he gave driving lessons to newcomers. Being able to give instead of just receiving brought us great joy.”

Family is still a binding force in Angela’s life. “Nobody in our family is going to forsake one another. We’ll always be there for each other.”

In fact, every Sunday, they gather together. It used to be at her grandma’s house, and now, Sunday dinner is at her mom’s house. Stuffed peppers, garbanzo bean soup and plachinte, a cottage cheese pastry, are just a few of the favorites. Here’s a recipe for you to try from Angela’s family.

Garbanzo Bean Soup

Ingredients

1 cup Garbanzo Beans (also known as chickpeas)

3 cups of homemade chicken broth

1 onion (chopped into cubes)

1-2 tablespoons cooking oil

1/4 teaspoon of crushed chipotle pepper (or less)

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of dried dill

Instructions:

1. Soak 1 cup garbanzo beans in 3 cups of lukewarm water overnight. Before cooking, throw away the water from the garbanzo beans.
2. Add garbanzo beans to room temperature chicken broth. Bring to a boil. (The temperature of the chicken broth should be room temperature to avoid hardening of the beans.) Once it begins to boil, reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 1 ½ to 2 hours (until tender).
3. While beans are simmering, chop 1 large onion into cubes. Add 2 tablespoons of oil into a frying pan and sauté the onion on medium-low heat.  If desired, add 2-3 cloves of minced garlic. Once onion is almost ready, add 1-2 teaspoons of Smoked Paprika (or regular paprika if you don’t have smoked) and 1/4 teaspoon of crushed chipotle pepper (or just a pinch for flavor) and sauté for another minute or until onions are a golden color.
4. Once the beans are tender and ready, add the sautéed onions, 1 teaspoon of dill , and 1/4 teaspoon of salt to the chicken broth and beans (you may add more as desired, but it will not taste good if it’s too salty)
5. Bring to a boil and then turn it off, mix altogether and ENJOY!

You can learn more about World Relief and the work we do by clicking here.

Balinda. Anzhella. Rezvan. Ibadallah. Aziz. Ivan. Massuda. Elena. Haitham. Ivan. Abdul. Andrey. Morella. Halima. Viktorya. Just saying the names of a few of the people and new neighbors I have met in my first week of work at World Relief Spokane makes me smile. They come from the Ukraine, Congo, Afghanistan, Russia — places I have never been and may never have the opportunity to visit. Still, right here in Spokane, Washington, I have the opportunity to meet them, to listen to them speak in beautifully accented English or to catch snippets of their conversations in other languages. At lunch, I am offered poppy seed cookies (a Ukrainian favorite) or naan (middle eastern flatbread). My world – my senses, my understanding, my perspective – is about to undergo a radical transformation. I can hardly wait.

I hope you will join me as together we meet people from all over the world and hear their stories.

Last Monday, I arrived at 1522 N Washington as the Development Director for World Relief Spokane. In some ways, I was not the most likely candidate for the job. Yes, my career has been in marketing and fundraising for non-profits, but immigration and refugees are new subjects for me. I have barely been over the borders into Canada and Mexico and no further. I speak one language, and up until now, frankly, my world has been pretty white and pretty ethnocentric. Although not entirely. For 14.5 years, I worked for Union Gospel Mission in Spokane, telling the stories of people experiencing homelessness, many of whom had experienced horrific childhood trauma. Their stories expanded my understanding of what it means to love my neighbor, to see beyond the surface of a person’s life, to extend compassion in a meaningful way, to live for reasons beyond my own success and comfort. Now, I’m preparing to further grow my understanding, to hear and tell stories that will encompass a different kind of homelessness, another form of trauma, and rejection on a national scale.

I have to start with the basics:

Who is a refugee? A refugee is someone who has had to flee his or her home country due to violence or persecution. By definition, a refugee has been invited to come to the United States and comes here legally.*

In 2021, 89.3 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations or events seriously disturbing public order.

• 53.2 million of these people are internally displaced within their own countries; 27.1 million are refugees.
• Roughly 36.5 million (41%) of the 89.3 million forcibly displaced people are children below 18 years of age. (The UN Refugee Agency)

This week, I spoke with a woman whose family fled Ukraine twenty-two years ago when she was six years old due to religious persecution. Because they were Christians, the children were not allowed to go to school. I spoke with a medical doctor whose wife worked for the US Embassy in Afghanistan, and when Kabul fell, they had two hours’ notice to evacuate. I spoke with a woman who had been a refugee her whole life before coming to the United States. They are all our neighbors.

How many refugees come to the US? A total of 11,411 refugees (18 percent of Biden’s announced target of 62,500) were resettled in the United States in fiscal year 2021. (Center for Immigration Studies)

Which countries are accepting the most refugees? 38% of the total number of refugees are hosted in just five countries: Turkey (3.8 million), Colombia (1.8 million), Uganda (1.5 million), Pakistan (1.5 million) and Germany (1.3 million). Poor and middle-income countries are shouldering more than their share of the burden.

Who is an immigrant?

An immigrant is anyone who takes up permanent residence in a foreign country. All refugees are immigrants, but not all immigrants are refugees. We will look at other categories of immigrants in future blog posts.

First and foremost, refugees and immigrants are human beings created in the image of God. They are our brothers and sisters.

“Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners because you were foreigners in Egypt.” Exodus 23:9

“Immigrants today, whatever their manner of entry, come primarily for the same reasons that immigrants have always come to our country. Though immigration policies have changed quite drastically over the last two centuries, immigrants themselves are still pushed out of their countries of origin by poverty, war, and persecution, and are still drawn to the United States by promises of jobs and economic advancement, freedom and family reunification. These push-and-pull factors explain most, if not all, of immigration to the United States from the time of the first settlers to today.” (Welcoming the Stranger, p. 45)

For most of us, the idea of being forced from our homes or prevented from going to school or church or the market, the fear of being kidnapped or killed, or receiving notice that we must be evacuated within hours are so far removed as to seem unreal, but for millions of people those scenarios are very real.

We cannot fix the global problem, but we can make our city a welcoming place for the 650 new neighbors we expect to arrive next year. And to those 650 people, it can make all the difference in the world.

Learn more about World Relief and the work we do by clicking the link here.

*Legal definition of “refugee” from the UN Refugee Agency: someone who “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.