From Kabul to New Haven: 30 hours to freedom – News from southeastern Connecticut – theday.com

A black SUV pulled into a parking lot in New Haven late Monday night, and out stepped a small woman in a blue plaid dress and tan hijab. Her toddler clung to her neck, yawning wide and blinking sleepily under the glow of the Shell gas station lights.

More than 30 hours before, the woman, her husband and their four children had left their home in Kabul and boarded one of the last commercial flights out of Afghanistans capital city before it fell to the Taliban.

The family and a single man from Kandahar, an Afghan city southwest of Kabul, flew from Kabul to Qatar to Virginia to New York before being driven to New Haven, where they'll begin to rebuild their lives as refugees.

Ranging in age from 3 to 44, the seven started their journeyinKabul, where crowdswere seen on video desperately clinging to U.S. military aircraft in an attempt to flee the Taliban takeover. Mere hours after they left, the nation's president fled the country, and the Taliban captured the capital, closing the city's airport to commercial flights.

Now, hardly anyone is allowed to leave.

"I'm so lucky," said the man from Kandahar, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Noorullah. "My life is safe. ... I much appreciate the U.S. government, that they gave me the chance to come inside America."

As Noorullah embraced a friend of a friend, a fellow refugee from Afghanistan whom he will live with while he secures his own housing, staff members from the New Haven-based nonprofit Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services, orIRIS, unloaded their luggage onto the city sidewalk.

The 33-year-old woman identified only by her first initial, M stayed close toher tired children: an 11-year-old boy in a striped T-shirt toting a large laptop bag, an 8-year-old girl with sparkling pink polka dot sneakers slipped mostly off her feet, a quiet 5-year-old boy and the sleepy 3-year-old boy in her arms.

For now, they'll move into a three-bedroom apartment with their cousin identified only by his first initial, Nhis wife and their five children. Though their new home will be crowded, it will be safe.

Over the next few weeks, the family will start their lives over with the few belongings they were able to bring with them. Two black suitcases and a few bundles wrapped in white and blue tarps tied with yellow rope hold all they have left.

IRIS will help enroll their children in school, provide medical screenings for the family andhelp the adults find employment. Right away, they'll enroll M who speaks no English in English classes and set her up with a volunteer "cultural companion" who will teach her practical skills like how to ride the bus, how to shop for food and which playgrounds she should to take her children to.

Typically, when a family arrives at the IRIS offices on Nicoll Street in New Haven, the nonprofit already has rented an apartment for them. But in this case, the family fled Kabul so quickly that IRIS only learned of their arrival 24 hours before their plane touched down on U.S. soil.

So, they turned toN, whom they had helped find a job, an apartment and schools for his children just a few years ago when he arrived as a refugee. Without hesitation, he came to the IRIS office late Monday night to welcome his relatives to safety, to welcome them home.

The late-night reunion was the first time N had seen his family since he, too, left Afghanistan under the threat of the Taliban.

'We will kill you'

Five years ago,Nwas working with United States military forces in Afghanistan when he received a text message from a member of the Taliban.

"We will kill you," it said. "And if we can't find you, we will kidnap your children."

The Taliban wanted N to stop working with theAmericans, so he went to his boss for help. And then for months, he hid.

He applied for a special immigration visa, or SIV,which brings to the U.S. those who have worked with American military missionsin Afghanistan and Iraq and provides them with protection. While he waited for his visa to be approved, he stayed safe and out of sight. He didn't see his family for months and his children couldn't go to school.

Seven monthslater, hisapplication was approved and he, his wife and their five children boarded a flight to the United States.

When they first arrived, N said, assimilating into a new life in New Haven was incredibly difficult. They didn't speak English, they didn't have a car and he didn't have a job. But with IRIS' help, they built a life. N found a job, and his children enrolled in school; now his oldest daughter is about to head off to college.

"Right now we have a good life, my kids every day go to the school,"he said,"I'm happy."

But he still remembers what it was like to live with the fear of being executed by Taliban and to live under their rule.

He remembers working as a storekeeper with the Taliban patrolling the streets. If they thought he hadn't prayed during each call to prayer, they might beat him. If they thought his beard was trimmed, they might beat him.

"They would hit by hand, by stick, by gun, they hit the women," he said,"they hurt the people."

As he watched the Taliban capture city after city in Afghanistan last week, N said he feared for family members who are now stuck there. He said he's been reaching out to his siblings, his cousins and his uncles every day and telling them to hide.

"I call them and I tell them 'stay at home, don't (go) out from the home,'" he said."The situation is (too) bad."

As he described the images and videos he's seen of Afghans clamoring to board planes to escape his homeland, he paused to take a breath.

"They're scared," he said. "Everybody is scared that they're coming. The Taliban is coming."

More refugees expected

In the next year, IRIS plans to welcome at least 400 refugees from Afghanistan, a number they expect will grow exponentially as more and more people try to pour out of the country on SIVs, according to IRIS Director Chris George.

Started in 1982, IRIS helps refugees, immigrants and asylum-seekers become self-sufficient and integrated into their new communities. Within a few weeks, the organization helps every refugee connect with essential services: housing, employment, education and health care.

As refugees get on their feet in their new homes, IRIS furnishes theirnew apartments with donated furniture and household goods and fills their fridges with food from the agency's weekly food pantry. The agency also addresses the physical and mental health needs of refugees, many of whom live with the trauma of the conflict and violence they fled.

The agency also helps them build community connections, learn about the culture of their new city and provide them with legal services to help those theyve left behind.

"We help them restart their lives from the ground up," IRISDirector of Community Engagement Ann O'Brien said.

t.hartz@theday.com

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