Fresh Voices: The Gift of Hope
Seema Kakar (center) with Mayor Steven Fulop of Jersey City to her left and members of her family and the mayor’s staff, Maureen Donohue, Executive Director of Peace Ministries (third from left, back row) and Sister Sheena George (second from right, back row).
by Seema Kakar
Most of the articles in Living Peace are written by sisters or associates. Fresh Voices is a first-person column written by someone outside the CSJP community to help raise awareness on specific issues.
I came to the United States of America from Afghanistan at the end of 2013. I received a scholarship for my ESL classes, then applied to a private school in Massachusetts called Northfield Mount Hermon (NMH). I was accepted, and after a year of doing my post-graduate classes at NMH, I was able to apply for a bachelor’s degree to different colleges. Luckily, I received a full scholarship from Saint Louis University, where I completed my undergraduate degree in International Business and Marketing. While I was getting my degree, my family received threats from the Taliban because I was living in the United States, and the Taliban could not accept me studying in the U.S.A. My family was very scared and had to move to different places in order to stay safe. My last time going home to Afghanistan was in 2018. I applied for my asylum here in the U.S.A in 2019. I was unable to go back to Afghanistan or see my family for four long years. But I received my asylum approval in 2021 finally, and recently most of my family arrived in the U.S.A.
After I was done with my school, I came to New York City and lived in a friend’s place, where I could not live for long. As an asylee, I had some places that I could call and that could help me. I called Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement Department, and they introduced me to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace. I was warmly welcomed to Peace House of Hospitality by Sister Sheena George. Sister Sheena was able to help me in every possible way, including being in community with other women who lived in the house with me. I got my first part-time job working for Peace Ministries in New Jersey through Sister Sheena. I worked with Peace Ministries for almost six months under Maureen Donohue’s supervision. She has been a great mentor to me, and I have learned so much professionally from her. I then tried to find jobs related to my skills and was able to find a job with International Refugee Assistance Project, where I currently work with immigrants as a case manager.
In August 2021, the Taliban took over Afghanistan, and my family there was in imminent danger. I immediately filled a Humanitarian Parole application for them with the help of Michael McLean, Division Director of the Division of Immigrant Affairs, Jersey City. One of my sisters, Basbibi, was able to help me in this process. She had lived in the New York area for long enough to know people who could help us bring over our family. A woman who paid for a charter flight for my family was able to help get them out of Afghanistan. This process took us 16 very long days with little to no sleep. We applied for our family with so many different forms in order to get them out of Afghanistan, so they could be safe and breathe in a place where they could study and work without the worry of getting bombed or kidnapped. My family left Afghanistan in early September and arrived in the U.S.A. in early October 2021.
They lived in Fort Dix in South Jersey where refugees could stay after fleeing Afghanistan. There, they were in a makeshift refugee encampment of tents and rooms made from containers. I was worried about meeting my family after four years, and yet still unable to meet them while they were in the same country as I. I was not allowed to go in or out of Fort Dix. I could only talk to them online. They were so close but not close enough. I drove there, but they didn’t let me in.
My family tried hard to get help from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, International Rescue Committee, and other organizations but were unable to get any help for more than five months, because the demand was so high. More than 40,000 people are seeking humanitarian parole, including Afghans, so the process was very competitive. One of my brothers, a sister-in-law, and a niece are still in Afghanistan. My brother couldn’t leave because he was captured by the Taliban and beaten. Luckily, he is now okay and is out of the hands of the Taliban. We are now able to talk to him once a month through cousins. We hope that when the time is right, he and his family can leave Afghanistan and be here with the rest of our family.
Sister Sheena and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace were very kind and told me that my family could live for a year in a house they had after connecting my family’s case with Church World Service. My family and I were reunited on February 19, 2022, in that house. We all are very happy and are grateful for all the sisters who helped us in this process, just as they have helped many other women who have no place to live. We now have jobs and health insurance and are in the process of getting driver’s licenses. The CSJPs gave us a safe place to live. They gave us hope.
This article appeared in the Summer 2022 issue of Living Peace.