Edris Akbari — along with his wife, 11-year-old son, and 7-year-old daughter — came to Owensboro on September 1, 2021, by way of Afghanistan. After being here for one year, he confidently says Owensboro has become their home.
“Now my family is in peace, they do what they want to do, there’s no fear of anything,” he said.
Compared to Afghanistan, there were a lot of changes the Akbari family had to acclimate to.
One of the happy adjustments he and the rest of the Afghan community experienced was being able to have the women in the families do things outside of the house. Previously, his daughter was not able to go to school and his wife was not allowed to work.
“I’m really happy here that my wife can go to work; my wife can drive her own car; [both of] my kids can go to school. So now I’m happy that they will have a good future,” Jkbari said.
Before coming to the U.S., Akbari spent his time as a journalist in Afghanistan. Now in Owensboro, he is the main contact person for the Afghan community. He helps them with any sort of problem that may arise in the day-to-day.
That can mean medical appointments, insurance meetings, going to the DMV office, or anything that may need some translating or mediation from one community to the next.
Through his work, Akbari has seen how the Afghan and American cultures have embraced each other. He noted that while there has been at least one negative experience (which involved a couple of refugees being attacked with pepper spray), the majority of interactions have been positive and that the refugees have largely seen an overflow of love from the community.
“[When we were in the hotel,] volunteers would come to the hotel to bring in foods, diapers for the kids, wipes and everything,” he said. “Some people are taking people to their medical appointments, teaching people how to drive. We didn’t really feel like we are in another country; it’s our country.”
Akbari said within months of their arrival, community members helped transport refugees to the mosque for weekly prayers and churches allowed them to cook food for the 150+ refugees who were temporarily staying in a hotel.
The only major problem he noted was the ability to eat Halal meat — but even there he sees the community embracing the differences.
Because of the attraction and love that has been shown toward Halal meat and Afghan dishes, Akbari said that he hopes to open a restaurant in the next month to really allow Owensboro a chance to experience Afghan traditional dishes.
He noted that getting loans for a business can be difficult for anyone, but especially when you’re just coming to the country. Through the help of the International Center and other connections, they were able to set plans to be able to start in November.
“I’m just thankful that in our community so many people have come forward to help in any way we’ve needed,” International Center of Owensboro Director Diane Ford said.
Since September 2021, the International Center has been able to help 184 Afghan refugees acclimate, find their home, and safely be able to interact with everyone in the community.
Ford said they didn’t just want the refugees to acclimate to American culture, she wanted the community to also acclimate to the Afghan culture.
“I kept saying that to them. We do not want you to give up your own culture, your religion, your traditions. We want you to integrate and assimilate here, but we want to integrate and assimilate with you as well,” Ford said.
An example that she recalls is when she was invited to go to a prayer session at the mosque. She said that while she was unable to speak Dari, she was able to still enjoy the service and also see their faces as she took part in their practices.
To Ford, each refugee comes with a very unique background and is an asset to the community — not just culturally but also in spirit.
With the background of coming from an immediate and unprecedented evacuation, Ford said so many of them are eager to get back to the pace they had in Afghanistan. They were eager to find out bus routes, walk the streets, get back to work, and more.
Ford said that the volunteers are always needed, and anyone interested in helping volunteers can contact the International Center by calling 270-683-3423.
