How one household of Afghan refugees is adjusting to their new life in Maine : NPR

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When individuals who fled violence and persecution come to a brand new nation as refugees, the toll of what they’ve skilled can hang-out them for a very long time, even after they’re bodily secure. Youngsters are particularly weak. NPR’s Rhitu Chatterjee has a narrative of a boy and his household who fled Afghanistan and who at the moment are settled within the U.S.

RHITU CHATTERJEE, BYLINE: Hey.

MUJIB UR RAHMAN: Hey. How are you at the moment, good?

CHATTERJEE: I am good. How are you?

MUJIB: I am good.

CHATTERJEE: My title is Rhitu.

MUJIB: My title is Mujib.

CHATTERJEE: Good to satisfy you, Mujib.

I meet 12-year-old Mujib Ur Rahman at his new dwelling – a small, sparsely furnished house in Lewiston, Maine. He moved right here in January together with his mother and father and an older brother. The brothers grew up in Afghanistan’s third-largest metropolis, Herat, the place they’ve a home with a giant backyard the place they grew vegatables and fruits. Mujib remembers spending a lot of the summer time evenings doing the factor he beloved most.

MUJIB: (Via interpreter) After I got here dwelling from college, I’d play with kites on the roof of my home.

CHATTERJEE: Typically taking part in kite combating, a beloved custom in Afghanistan the place folks attempt to lower others’ kite strings with their very own and set the others’ kite free. Mujib beams as he brags about how most of his neighbors feared his kite-fighting expertise.

MUJIB: (Via interpreter) After they noticed me flying kites, they’d take down their kites. There was one who rivaled my talent. I might by no means free his kite. We have been in competitors.

CHATTERJEE: However life as Mujib knew it got here to a halt in 2021 when the Taliban took management of the nation.

MUJIB: (Via interpreter) They did quite a lot of scary issues proper in entrance of individuals’s eyes – for instance, hitting and stabbing folks with knives. I assumed they’d come to my dwelling and arrest me and beat me too.

CHATTERJEE: Mujib’s mom, Khadija Rahmani, labored as a nurse and ladies’s rights advocate. A part of her job was to determine an advocate for women and girls who have been pressured into marriage or have been victims of home violence. And that made her a goal for the Taliban.

KHADIJA RAHMANI: (Via interpreter) They searched our dwelling a number of occasions. And I went to neighbor’s home to cover. They have been looking my home and ruined all my stuff, our beds, garments. They destroyed every thing.

CHATTERJEE: So she, her husband and her two youthful sons, Mujib and his then 17-year-old brother, Munib, stayed in hiding at a relative’s home, continuously weary.

RAHMANI: (Via interpreter) We did not sleep on a regular basis. We have been scared. When there was any noise, we have been considering tips on how to run from dwelling. For instance, if the Taliban got here from this aspect, how might we leap over the wall and run?

CHATTERJEE: Lastly, in 2023, they obtained permission to depart the nation together with her two youngest sons. Earlier this 12 months, they arrived in Lewiston, Maine, a metropolis now dwelling to some resettled communities, together with Somali and Bhutanese. With assist from the local people, the Rahmanis discovered their rental house in a three-story New England home.

RAHMANI: (Non-English language spoken).

CHATTERJEE: Serving cardamom-flavored tea and dried apricot and almonds in a lounge, Khadija says she’s grateful to be right here.

RAHMANI: (Via interpreter) We thank God a thousand occasions that we will begin our life anew right here.

CHATTERJEE: However the continual stress of the previous few years nonetheless haunts them.

RAHMANI: (Via interpreter) My husband and I stayed awake till 1:30 to 2 or 3 o’clock at night time as a result of I nonetheless have that trauma from Taliban’s regime in my mind.

CHATTERJEE: And 12-year-old Mujib has struggled essentially the most. Khadija says he is simply triggered by sudden noises.

RAHMANI: (Via interpreter) He will get pale. His respiratory will get laborious. He panics and tries to expire of the home. As soon as there was a knock on the door, and he began crying. His face turned yellow.

CHATTERJEE: She says college has additionally crammed him with anxiousness.

RAHMANI: (Via interpreter) He mentioned to me, Mom, I do not need to go to highschool. Everybody’s bullying me. I do not like this college. I do not perceive the language, and I do not perceive in any respect.

CHATTERJEE: And that is to be anticipated, says Theresa Betancourt.

THERESA BETANCOURT: The responses that you simply see in a younger boy like that, these are expectable if you’ve been via the kind of horrifying, traumatic occasions that he is been via.

CHATTERJEE: Betancourt directs the analysis program on kids and adversity at Boston Faculty.

BETANCOURT: We all know from years of analysis now that kids uncovered to violence, separation and loss attributable to armed battle and compelled migration have elevated dangers for issues with melancholy, anxiousness, traumatic stress reactions and even challenges with belief and social interactions.

CHATTERJEE: She says kids who’ve misplaced a mother or father or been separated from them undergo essentially the most. However it may be troublesome for teenagers like Mujib too, as a result of their mother and father are sometimes struggling as effectively.

BETANCOURT: Mother and father might really feel stigma in mentioning their very own struggles with issues like melancholy or anxiousness, and so they could also be involved about discussing their kid’s emotional, behavioral issues too.

CHATTERJEE: And so they’re overwhelmed as they attempt to adapt to a brand new nation, similar to Mujib’s mother and father.

RAHMANI: (Via interpreter) And I actively in search of work, so we will have the cash to run the household.

CHATTERJEE: Khadija and her husband not too long ago acquired part-time jobs at a FedEx packaging facility. She needs to work as a nurse once more, however she must be fluent in English first.

RAHMANI: (Via interpreter) We now have to be taught this language, as a result of we’ve got a tough time not figuring out the language.

CHATTERJEE: Regardless of their very own stress, Khadija and her husband have been making an attempt to help Mujib. She tries to spice up Mujib’s confidence so he feels higher about going to highschool.

RAHMANI: (Via interpreter) To encourage him, I say nobody is best than you. Nobody is extra good-looking than you.

CHATTERJEE: She’s been making an attempt to assist together with his English classes and reassuring him that they’re secure right here. However she says he is nonetheless hypervigilant.

RAHMANI: (Via interpreter) He discovered that this home has two exits. Considered one of them is for escaping.

CHATTERJEE: In case somebody breaks in. However he has made progress in the direction of settling into his new life. Mujib says he is beginning to get pleasure from college.

MUJIB: (Via interpreter) I like studying English. I like enjoying soccer. I additionally just like the fitness center. I like all kinds of issues.

CHATTERJEE: He is even made new mates, a giant step on this main transition. However he is nonetheless homesick.

MUJIB: (Via interpreter) The very first thing that I miss is our backyard, the remainder of my household, my land, my dwelling and my canine.

CHATTERJEE: Greater than something, he misses flying kites, a lot that he generally even cries about it.

Rhitu Chatterjee, NPR Information.

(SOUNDBITE OF GUSTAF LJUNGGREN’S “LEADING SOMEWHERE”)

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