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Ali Hejran Sakhidad, 6, (center) tries on a new pair of shoes as his father, Mohammad Naziry (right), looks on. Jan Therien (back left), ministry coordinator with the Episcopal Community Sponsorship, points out the blinking lights on his shoes as Robin Lewis, co-owner of Fleet Feet in Roanoke, watches. The Episcopal Community Sponsorship worked with Fleet Feet, a shoe and clothing store in Roanoke, to donate shoes to the family, which escaped Afghanistan in August 2021 as the Taliban regained control of the country.
Benyamin Sakhidad (left foreground), 10, is the first to run out and greet Jan Therien, ministry coordinator with the Episcopal Community Sponsorship. His father, Mohammad Naziry, also gives a greeting hug. Therien’s group was the first to join the new Community Sponsorship program formed by Commonwealth Catholic Charities in response to the large influx of families arriving in Roanoke after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan a little more than a year ago.
Joan Dowdy, a retired special education teacher, works on an English lesson with Benyamin Sakhidad, 10, (right) and his 13-year-old cousin Omid Naziry (not pictured) in their apartment on June 29. Benyamin’s mother prepares to lay out a cloth on the floor where the rest of the family will gather for lunch.
Benyamin Sakhidad, 10 (left), shares a moment with his cousin Omid Naziry, 13, during a soccer game in June, organized through Friendship House Roanoke. The organization works with local churches offering a variety of programs and services to serve Roanoke neighborhoods. The cousins were thrilled to play soccer in Roanoke. They grew up playing and loving the sport in Afghanistan before fleeing their homes when the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan last August.
A month after Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021, Commonwealth Catholic Charities said it experienced one of the largest influxes of refugees arriving in the agency’s 95-year history.
The resettlement agency increased staff in its Richmond, Newport News and Roanoke offices since the Afghan crisis started, with additional funding from local foundations and governments.
“With so many families that came in so quickly at one time, we realized that we needed additional help to be able to support and provide our services to the families, to help them thrive and to help them integrate into our communities successfully,” said Marnie Mills, a mission advancement associate for the agency.
Still, Commonwealth Catholic Charities (CCC) needed more people, as well as funds for the new arrivals. Several in the Roanoke Valley stepped up.
“It was weeks and weeks of non-stop phone calls, and people emailing and wanting to help,” Mills said.
The agency started the Community Sponsorship program, allowing local groups to work more closely with incoming families.
“It was just a really neat way for us to engage our community, engage these groups that wanted to all work together and to come together to help support the families,” Mills said.
Groups went through training and background checks and were able to choose among three different levels of support varying from a one-week to a one-year commitment.
The Becoming Beloved Community with Christ Episcopal Church was the first faith group to become a part of Commonwealth Catholic Charities Community Sponsorship program. The ministry began with the goal of creating inclusion.
After retiring from work as a chaplain for 10 years, Jan Therien felt a need to continue her ministry.
She kneeled and prayed in the Christ Episcopal Church sanctuary as the Rev. Melissa Hays-Smith came to the pew beside her.
“She said to me, ‘Jan, we’d like for you to coordinate the Afghan resettlement ministry,’” Therien said.
“Of course I said yes.”
She reached out to Mills at CCC.
“We thought that would be beautiful, to grow the Becoming Beloved Community by bringing in a stranger and making them family,” Therien said.
She and members of Christ Episcopal Church worked alongside CCC to form the Episcopal Community Sponsorship, including seven other churches — St. Elizabeth, St. James, St. John’s, St. Mark’s in Fincastle, Trinity Ecumenical at Smith Mountain Lake, Trinity Episcopal Church in Rocky Mount and Christ Church in Martinsville.
The Episcopal Community Sponsorship group decided on a 90-day sponsorship and was introduced to Mohammad Naziry and his family. Group members provided more than 600 hours of service to Naziry and his brother’s family during the formal partnership with CCC. The formal period ended in June, but the core team continues to spend time with Naziry and his family.
Sponsorship volunteers helped the family shop for new clothes. They arranged home furnishing donations, grocery shopping and English tutoring. They provided tutorials on paying bills and applying for asylum or work visas. They drove family members to medical appointments and soccer practices.
“These are things that can be very time consuming, with so many families that came in, for our resettlement staff,” Mills said.
Naziry watched in silence while children and adults paraded and jumped around his living room, his smile radiating delight as his sons, nieces, nephews, wife, brother and their mother tried on new shoes.
Red and orange lights flashed as his youngest son jumped up and landed wearing a pair of new light-up sneakers.
Eight months after arriving in Roanoke from Afghanistan, they were all getting a new pair of shoes, fitted just right for their new life. Fleet Feet, a local running apparel store, donated the shoes to the families.
Therien recalls helping Naziry take his son’s shopping for school clothes.
“He found the shorts. And he said, these are what American men wear, yes?”
Naziry purchased his first pair of shorts. He wore them on a summer afternoon as Therien came by to visit. His son, Benyamin Sakhidad, 10, ran outside to greet her and the two embraced.
Therien tried to greet his wife by speaking Dari, the family’s native language, laughing at her own pronunciation of “Salâm.”
The Roanoke Times is identifying Naziry’s wife by name, for cultural and safety reasons.
An interpreter with CCC helped translate.
“You’re trying to learn Dari; I’m trying to learn English,” Naziry’s wife said in Dari.
“But you’re doing much better with English than I am with Dari,” Therien replied.
Therien reminded her of how she reacted by speaking in English the first time she saw a train pass by.
“We don’t have a railroad system in Afghanistan,” Naziry said in English. “We have 45 years of war.”
Naziry, who said he has vacationed in such places as Fuji, China and India, said not much has surprised him about America so far, other than how kind and welcoming people in Roanoke have been.
“You can basically help others with just a smile,” he said. “If you can offer that only, your smile can help people.”
Naziry works full time at an auto body repair shop in Salem. He said he would perhaps someday like to start another business as he did in Afghanistan, but is unsure what type of business might work in Roanoke. He also said he has concerns about supporting his family of five on minimum wage.
“All the time is not sunrise, and all the time is not sunset,” Naziry said. “It is sunset, sunrise, sunset, sunrise. It is life.”
Naziry walked Therien to the door and they hugged goodbye.
Joan Dowdy, a retired special education teacher, runs around the apartment with Benyamin and his 13-year-old cousin Omid Naziry, sticky notes in hand. The word “stove” is written on a note, and the boys run to the kitchen but are uncertain where to place the square purple piece of paper.
“Ceiling” is written on another, and the boys laugh as they try to figure out how to place a sticky note on the ceiling.
“They’re delightful boys, and they are so gracious,” Dowdy said.
Four volunteers with Episcopal Community Sponsorship visit the boys and the rest of the Naziry family each week to help teach them English. They will continue to learn through the Roanoke County school system and Blue Ridge Literacy in Roanoke, an organization that provides language skills for adults.
Naziry’s wife brings out a large circular flat bread, bigger than a large pizza. She offers the soft and warm bread, cradled in a large blue cloth, to one of the English tutors, who tears off a piece.
A knock at the door reveals another volunteer, who has come by to take the boys to soccer. They excitedly run out the door.
One summer afternoon during a soccer scrimmage, Omid was the first player to score a goal. After the game he and Benyamin left the field, arms around each other.
Joe Mott was there at the sideline with a fellow volunteer. He held out his arm. They fist-bumped and began to walk up the grassy hill.
“I’d like to think that even when the need ceases, [the] relationship will evolve organically and we’ll be going to [their] high school graduations,” Mott said.
Theiren replied: “Good lord willing. I don’t know how to stop.”
She recalled the night Naziry and his family had members of Episcopal Community Sponsorship over for dinner. More than 20 people sat in the Naziry apartment with an elaborate display of food, and when Naziry stood to speak, Theiren said his words gave her tears of joy. “He stood up and said ‘We are family now. We will be family forever.’”
Ali Hejran Sakhidad, 6, (center) tries on a new pair of shoes as his father, Mohammad Naziry (right), looks on. Jan Therien (back left), ministry coordinator with the Episcopal Community Sponsorship, points out the blinking lights on his shoes as Robin Lewis, co-owner of Fleet Feet in Roanoke, watches. The Episcopal Community Sponsorship worked with Fleet Feet, a shoe and clothing store in Roanoke, to donate shoes to the family, which escaped Afghanistan in August 2021 as the Taliban regained control of the country.
Mohammad Naziry (right) sits for lunch with his son, Benyamin Sakhidad, 10 (center), and wife (standing at left) in their new apartment home. The Roanoke Times is not revealing his wife’s name or face for safety reasons. Naziry’s brothers who were visiting are also seated with them.
Benyamin Sakhidad (left foreground), 10, is the first to run out and greet Jan Therien, ministry coordinator with the Episcopal Community Sponsorship. His father, Mohammad Naziry, also gives a greeting hug. Therien’s group was the first to join the new Community Sponsorship program formed by Commonwealth Catholic Charities in response to the large influx of families arriving in Roanoke after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan a little more than a year ago.
Joan Dowdy, a retired special education teacher, works on an English lesson with Benyamin Sakhidad, 10, (right) and his 13-year-old cousin Omid Naziry (not pictured) in their apartment on June 29. Benyamin’s mother prepares to lay out a cloth on the floor where the rest of the family will gather for lunch.
Benyamin Sakhidad, 10 (left), shares a moment with his cousin Omid Naziry, 13, during a soccer game in June, organized through Friendship House Roanoke. The organization works with local churches offering a variety of programs and services to serve Roanoke neighborhoods. The cousins were thrilled to play soccer in Roanoke. They grew up playing and loving the sport in Afghanistan before fleeing their homes when the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan last August.
Mohammad Naziry holds his son, Ali Hejran Sakhidad, 6, while sharing his story of his family’s life in Afghanistan and why they fled when the Taliban regained control of his country in August 2021. They are in the safety of their new home in Roanoke County on July 17.
Members of the the Episcopal Community Sponsorship advisory board outside Christ Episcopal Church in Roanoke. Joan and Dan Dowdy , (from left) Joe Mott, Chris Turnbull, Becky Harris, Margaret Ann Ayers, and Jan Therien.
Bread is wrapped in a cloth for it to cool in the Naziry household in June.
Donna Repa hugs the Afghan woman she is teaching English to as they laugh about the learning process. Repa volunteers with the Episcopal Community Sponsorship.
Omid Naziry listens to his English tutor from the Episcopal Community Sponsorship while in his apartment in June.
Donna Repa (from left) Alison Blanton, and Jan Therien are part of the Episcopal Community Sponsorship core team. They gather for their weekly meeting in late July to discuss transportation and help for Mohammad Naziry and his family.
Heather Rousseau, a photojournalist for The Roanoke Times since 2015, is the 2021-22 Secular Society Fellowship recipient. Her work is focused on refugees and immigrants in the Roanoke region.
Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter.
Heather Rousseau is The Secular Society Investigative Fellow at The Roanoke Times. She moved to Roanoke in 2015 and has worked around the country as a visual journalist for over 15 years. She loves to share stories through photography and video.
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Ali Hejran Sakhidad, 6, (center) tries on a new pair of shoes as his father, Mohammad Naziry (right), looks on. Jan Therien (back left), ministry coordinator with the Episcopal Community Sponsorship, points out the blinking lights on his shoes as Robin Lewis, co-owner of Fleet Feet in Roanoke, watches. The Episcopal Community Sponsorship worked with Fleet Feet, a shoe and clothing store in Roanoke, to donate shoes to the family, which escaped Afghanistan in August 2021 as the Taliban regained control of the country.
Benyamin Sakhidad (left foreground), 10, is the first to run out and greet Jan Therien, ministry coordinator with the Episcopal Community Sponsorship. His father, Mohammad Naziry, also gives a greeting hug. Therien’s group was the first to join the new Community Sponsorship program formed by Commonwealth Catholic Charities in response to the large influx of families arriving in Roanoke after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan a little more than a year ago.
Joan Dowdy, a retired special education teacher, works on an English lesson with Benyamin Sakhidad, 10, (right) and his 13-year-old cousin Omid Naziry (not pictured) in their apartment on June 29. Benyamin’s mother prepares to lay out a cloth on the floor where the rest of the family will gather for lunch.
Benyamin Sakhidad, 10 (left), shares a moment with his cousin Omid Naziry, 13, during a soccer game in June, organized through Friendship House Roanoke. The organization works with local churches offering a variety of programs and services to serve Roanoke neighborhoods. The cousins were thrilled to play soccer in Roanoke. They grew up playing and loving the sport in Afghanistan before fleeing their homes when the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan last August.
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