CHARLOTTE, N.C. (FOX 46) – Right now, some Afghan families calling Charlotte home are now hoping to get other families members out of harm’s way.
Meanwhile, a local non-profit is gearing up for an influx of Afghan families headed to North Carolina. Bushra Amiri worries about her family’s safety in Afghanistan as more than a thousand Americans and Afghan allies continue to flee the country and the Taliban gains control.
“I think it’s very difficult right now, I wish they can come here,” Amiri said. “The people that are over there, they don’t have food, they don’t have a place, they don’t have a home. They’re living on the street.”
Fearing for her life and safety, she left the country with her husband almost nine years ago. He worked with the U.S military.
“He was an interpreter with the U.S Army and all the time my hometown people, they know that my husband, he was working like that,” Amiri said.
Last week, her family had to flee their home fearing hostility from the Taliban. She remembers how they treated her when she lived there.
“We don’t have any good memories with them so that’s why these are the dangerous things that we think. The woman over there doesn’t have rights, they can’t go to school, they’re supposed to cover themselves. We’re human, it doesn’t matter what religion we are,” Amiri said.
Amarra Ghani is the founder of Welcome Home based in Charlotte. It’s a group of volunteers working to provide Afghan families fleeing their country with necessities. Right now, they’re gearing up to help the close to 300 afghans headed to North Carolina.
So far, they’re helping 20 Afghan families who now live near Charlotte.
“We have a lot of families coming,” Ghani said. “They’re coming here, they don’t have work, they don’t have cars, they’re coming with exactly whatever is literally on their backs.”
The 300 Afghans coming from Afghanistan will be vetted through the Carolina Refugee Resettlement Agency and they will mostly be housed in the Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill areas.
Right now, the group is searching for more volunteers to help their mission and storage space to keep resources like furniture and clothes safe. If you’d like to help click here.
“They’re dealing with things that they never asked for. And now they’re fleeing, nobody leaves home unless home is too dangerous,” Ghani said.
