Lessons we learned from two young Afghan women

The following comment is off Curtis S. Chin, former US Ambassador to the Asian Development Bank and inaugural Milken Institute Asia Fellow, and Laura Deal LaceyExecutive Director of the Milken Institute Asia Center.

With the number of refugees fleeing Ukraine now exceeding 3 million people, countries around the world are responding.

Poland welcomed more than 1.8 million Ukrainians. Hungary, Germany, and Spain, among other nations, have opened their borders. Even Japan, which receives very few refugees each year, has worked to set up a support system to accept Ukrainians fleeing their homeland.

However, with this necessary attention to this new wave of refugees, it is critical that the government, business and community do not forget the situation of Afghan refugees. Covid-19 worries, concerns about jobs and inflation, and now Ukraine understandably dominates the news.

In this context, in 2021 the UNHCR Refugee Agency reported that there were 2.6 million registered Afghan refugees in the world, of which 2.2 million were registered in Iran and Pakistan alone. Another 3.5 million were displaced internally after fleeing their homes to flee to Afghanistan. These numbers are likely to continue to climb.

For us, it’s personal. Each year, the Milken Institute holds a class of 15 to 20 interns in Asia. The program is designed to attract rising stars from all over Southeast Asia, and to develop the economy throughout the Indo-Pacific region. Over the years, the program has included interns from Afghanistan.

With the withdrawal of US forces last year, two of our former interns were evacuated from Afghanistan. We followed her journey from Kabul airport to refugee camps to the resettlement.

Fortunately, both young women are now safe and healthy. One begins their life in Finland and learns to adapt to the winter in Helsinki. The other moved to Tempe, Arizona, and the United States. She is studying, along with more than 60 other young Afghan women, at Arizona State University as part of a resettlement partnership co-sponsored by the International Rescue Committee and ASU.

So, what do you do when your interns become refugees? Our experience and lessons learned from our previous internships suggest ways for most anyone – with or without a personal connection to Afghanistan, or Ukraine for that matter – that can happily help them get through refugee camps and who are now forced to build new lives.

First, identify trusted organizations that offer assistance, and learn how you or your organization can best help. It could be funding – cash donations are typically the most flexible way to help address urgent needs when types of contributions are not feasible – or it could be voluntary and share your time and knowledge.

Support for jobs, housing and education are all critical, as is support for mental health. As with those fleeing Ukraine today, many who have fled Afghanistan may well be confronted with “survival guilt” through worries and concerns about family members and friends left behind. Here, small and medium-sized businesses and organizations that are already engaged at local, community level can play a key role.

Assistance is provided by government, business and non-profit organizations, but programs need to be scaled up and sustainable resources.

In one example, World Education Services has launched a gateway program to assess the educational credentials of Afghans who have been displaced and have limited evidence of their academic achievements. This is critical to help eligible individuals further their education, become licensed in their field, or take the next step on their career path in the United States.

At government level, since August 2021, the United States has welcomed some 80,000 Afghans who are suddenly forced to flee their country, with the International Rescue Committee alone setting a new 10,000 arrival. About 90% of the 80,000 aircraft in the U.S. have been relocated from military bases and re-established in U.S. communities, with the help of about $ 13 billion in government spending, according to the Washington Post.

But of those Afghans who have made it to the U.S. since August, many still have the prospect of deportation because of their rapid arrival under what the U.S. government calls humanitarian parole. This is an emergency status that extends the right to work and live in the United States for only two years without a means to qualify for permanent residence.

Second, make time to stay engaged and learn more about a refugee’s home country Afghanistan or Ukraine or elsewhere – even if the news cycle moves from one crisis to another. This knowledge can be used to further benefit your voice and platforms – from community organizations on social media – to address key geopolitical issues such as the future of Afghanistan, raise awareness of the plight of refugees, and legislative or political action. Encourage change. as well as bilateral and multilateral support for those most at risk and left behind in Afghanistan. This too will be critical in the case of the needs of Ukrainian refugees.

With the situation in Afghanistan further deteriorating and hunger and misery on the rise after the US departure, we were particularly pleased to see the Board of Directors of the Asian Development Bank this January to support $ 405 million in grants for food security and delivery to support. of essential health and education services for the Afghan people.

Under its Sustaining Essential Services Delivery Project (Support for Afghan People), ADB will provide direct financial support to four UN agencies that have a presence and logistics in Afghanistan for direct humanitarian assistance. This direct support is implemented by agencies including UNICEF and the World Food Program and its partner non-governmental organizations.

Third, look behind the numbers at the individual – about the stereotypes and fears that re-emerge too often in difficult economic times. Of the tens of thousands of Afghans who were able to flee their country, we were blessed to know and work with two of them as interns. Everyone also helped put a human face to another tragedy, helping to win support for them and others in their shoes.

Our colleagues at the Milken Institute have risen up and collectively donated to the Arizona State University Foundation’s Educational Futures for Afghan Refugees program. With the two of us spending part of our childhood in Arizona – and one of us having family dates back to 1898 and what was then Arizona territory – it was especially rewarding to see Arizona play a key role in helping young Afghan women and their journey to independence in the United States.

It was also heartbreaking to see friends, family, and professional acquaintances offering financial aid and other forms of support such as mentorships for young women on study courses and potential career paths in the United States. For our trainees in Finland, it was a similar experience as friends and strangers extended our reach to find support on the ground in Helsinki.

It takes a village to make refugees feel welcome. Each of us – in business, in government, in civil society and in our local neighborhoods – can be part of a humane and sustainable response to a refugee crisis, whether the headlines have continued or not.