JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
More than 75,000 refugees from Afghanistan fled to the U.S. after the country fell into Taliban control in 2021. These refugees brought with them some pretty harrowing stories. We're going to spend the next few minutes hearing about two of them. One was a teenager who was separated from his parents at the Kabul airport as thousands of terrified Afghans tried to board planes. He made it onto one, but he was alone, his whole family left behind. He was just 17. The other is a man who fled into Pakistan with his wife and disabled daughter and then onto Mexico before being smuggled into the United States. NPR's Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman sat down with them recently, a year after first meeting them. Hey, Tom.
TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: Hey Juana.
SUMMERS: Tom, I just - I can't imagine how terrifying it must have been for both of these men fleeing Afghanistan like that. Let's start by talking about the teenager that we mentioned.
BOWMAN: Right. So we'll call him by his initials, BH, because, Juana, he still has family in Afghanistan, is, of course, afraid for their safety. When I sat down with him in Northern Virginia last year, he told me about how traumatic it was that day in August 2021, when he was inside the Kabul airport, desperately trying to reach his family outside. His whole family were afraid of the Taliban because a relative worked for the U.S. and Afghan militaries, and they were trying to get out.
B H: I called them several times, but no one was answering because they was in the crowd and no one heard the phone ring. It's a dark day for me because I lost my whole family, you know?
BOWMAN: So finally, he was able to reach his mother when he landed in Doha, Qatar, aboard a C-130 cargo plane crammed with refugees on the way to the United States.
B H: She was crying. That's the only thing she did.
SUMMERS: I mean, Tom, I cannot imagine how hard that must have been for both of them. So, I know that this is where we get to the part of the story here in the United States. What happened after BH arrived in the country?
BOWMAN: Well, since he was part of the American airlift, he got some assistance from the State Department, an apartment in Alexandria, Virginia. He ended up graduating from Alexandria City High School, and he was also helped by Christ Church in Old Town, Alexandria, which has a ministry to help refugees. So producer Lauren Hodges and I went to see him at his job. He works the front desk at Goodwin House, a retirement community.
BOWMAN: Hello again.
B H: Good morning.
BOWMAN: Good to see you.
B H: Good to see you, too.
BOWMAN: There is finally some good news about his family. Just a few months ago, they were able to pay a thousand dollars each to get smuggled across the border into Pakistan.
LAUREN HODGES, BYLINE: Which family members is it?
B H: My mom, dad and then two younger brothers and one older.
BOWMAN: Were they afraid?
B H: Yeah, for sure because it took almost five days crossing a border, like, going to a country illegal.
BOWMAN: He hopes one day, they'll all be able to get into the United States. But he's relieved his parents and brothers are finally out of Afghanistan. Right now he's attending community college, and he's been working at the Christ Church ministry, helping dozens of Afghan families in the area.
HODGES: What kind of stuff do they need?
B H: Furniture, food, and sometime they need a rent assistance. But at this moment, we don't have in our budget to sponsor a new family in the ministry. I'm going to offer something else instead, but I will never say no because that's going to disappoint them, you know?
BOWMAN: When we first met BH, he told us about living in the same house with his extended family back in Afghanistan. Now he's used to living alone - kind of likes it. When we first saw his apartment, it was sparse, barely furnished. He showed us pictures of the apartment now. There's a bed, some furniture, a bouquet of roses on a nightstand.
HODGES: Do you feel proud of your home?
B H: I can say yes because I have everything I need. And I don't just dream about stuff. Like, I can say I don't have any dream in my life. I just work for it and achieve it.
SUMMERS: Tom, you also mentioned a father who arrived with his wife and their disabled daughter. Tell us about that family.
BOWMAN: Right, Juana. So last year I met Shafi Amani and his 3-year-old daughter, Yousra. He was holding her outside a clinic in Alexandria, Virginia, and she was kind of limp, like a rag doll. She had this tumble of brown curls, and her eyes would roll back in her head. They all had to flee because Shafi worked as a contractor for the Afghan military, and he was afraid the Taliban would target him.
Now, Yousra was a healthy toddler when they left Afghanistan for Pakistan, but then she had a stroke. They fled to Mexico, then onto the U.S., desperate for better care. They eventually linked up with Dr. Karen Smith, who works at Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C. She's helped the family with medical care and also some financial support. And I caught up with them recently at Shafi's high-rise apartment building, where many immigrants live.
KAREN SMITH: Hello.
BOWMAN: Hello.
SMITH: Look at you.
BOWMAN: How are you?
SMITH: Just saying you're here on the penthouse now.
BOWMAN: I was just...
SMITH: It is so good to see you.
BOWMAN: Who's this little one?
Kaber Amani is a newborn, sleeping in his little bouncy chair. Shafi is holding his second daughter, Iqrah, a shy 2-year-old with a mass of brown hair. And in the corner is Yousra. She's 4 now. Her eyes are no longer rolling back but keenly focused on us. Every once in a while, a smile brightens her face.
Oh, she's beautiful. And you're right. She's very alert. I mean, last time I was...
SMITH: Yeah.
BOWMAN: ...Here, very - she was young and just, you know, wasn't focusing, but you can see now...
SHAFI AMANI: And now she's talking.
SMITH: Yeah.
BOWMAN: She's talking?
AMANI: Yes.
BOWMAN: Yousra rests in her wheelchair, her tiny feet resting on a toy stuffed frog. She suffered from a metabolic disorder after the family fled to Pakistan. She's unable to move much, and she's had recent strokes, says Dr. Smith.
And as far as walking?
AMANI: No.
BOWMAN: Yeah.
AMANI: Not yet. We are waiting.
BOWMAN: Hopefully that'll happen. Yeah.
SMITH: It's really seeing how things go.
SUMMERS: Shafi's wife holds little Kabir. She doesn't want her name revealed. She, too, worries about her family back in Afghanistan, especially her two younger sisters living under a Taliban rule that is repressive toward women. When she talks about them, her eyes fill with tears.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Both of them are at home now. And a lot of time when I speak with them, they are even crying, my sisters. Like, cannot do anything. My little sister - she said, like, what is my future?
BOWMAN: And how are you doing? The last time we talked, you were going to start studying English.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yes. Yeah. I have been learning English since two years. I can speak OK but not perfect.
BOWMAN: Shafi's still learning, too.
AMANI: If I don't know English, they give me, like, a...
BOWMAN: Shafi struggles to remember the word. His wife whispers, translator.
AMANI: Translator. Thank you. Now she's better than me because all the time she's asking me something. You know this? I'm telling her, I will learn from you.
BOWMAN: (Laughter).
AMANI: Yeah.
BOWMAN: Shafi is awaiting his asylum claim. He has a work permit and has a food truck with a partner outside the King Street Metro in Alexandria. They work seven days a week, serving both Afghan and Mexican food. And he has big plans for expanding the food truck business.
AMANI: I'm - in my life, I'm in the first step. But inshallah, everything - like, I have a big mind, and I made my master plan for five years. But inshallah it's next year, or after two years, we will be in another stage.
BOWMAN: Tom Bowman, NPR News, Alexandria, Virginia.
(SOUNDBITE OF ANNA ELIZABETH LAUBE SONG, "THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I'VE EVER SEEN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
