A Publication of North Carolina Lawyers Weekly and South Carolina Lawyers Weekly
November 2022
DARING TO DREAM
The close-knit staff at Church World Service in Greensboro gathers at the end of the workday. From left: Said Zeyar, Jelena Milisav, Iva Panayotova, Samir Seddiqi, Noman Farid, and Elizabeth DeFrance. Photo by Teri Saylor
Afghan refugee builds new life as a paralegal in Greensboro ■ BY TERI SAYLOR Khovaja Samir Seddiqi knows what hope and resilience feel like when your life is suddenly defined by grief and uncertainty. He lost everything when the Taliban overthrew the Afghan government amidst the United States military withdrawal in August of 2021. Today, he is a paralegal in the Greensboro office of Church World Service, a global organization that helps meet the immediate needs of refugees from dangerous zones seeking asylum in the United States. Despite everything Seddiqui has gone through, he considers himself lucky to have a job and an opportunity to help other Afghan refugees even as he labors through his own struggles. “When someone says they had nothing, I totally came to the United States like that,” he said, while sitting in the CWS offices in downtown Greensboro on a sunny afternoon in October. “I stepped into this country with the clothes I was wearing when I left Afghanistan and $5 in my pocket.” Just over a year ago, Seddiqi had everything going for him. A successful entrepreneur in Kabul, he owned Saddiqi Software Services and had started the Afghanistan Progressive Youth Organization, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching English and computer skills to young Afghans, with a focus on helping women. Fluent in English, as well as Dari and Pashto, two languages spoken in Afghanistan, he also worked for the U.S. Government as an interpreter and with defense contractors in a variety of roles, including supply chain management and office administration. In the chaotic final days as Afghan people clamored to board planes to leave their country for safer places, Seddiqi worked alongside troops at the airport until the last minute. “I helped the Marines with the evacuations for 10 days and did my part as an interpreter,” he said. “There was a great need to interpret an as the situation worsened.” He secured a spot on one of the last planes out. His mother and two of his sisters were able to leave the
country too. Still living in Afghanistan and in hiding are his father, two brothers, and another sister. “We all saw the really horrible images in the news of what was happening and watched the evacuation of over 80,000 Afghan allies,” said Megan Shepard, CWS office director. Most came directly to the United States where several military bases hosted them while their cases were being processed. From there, they traveled to resettlement agencies across the country, like CWS.
CWS helps refugees
In addition to its Greensboro office, CWS has a presence in Durham, Charlotte, and Asheville. in 1980, Congress signed into law the Refugee Act, formalizing the refugee resettlement program as we know it now — a humanitarian lifesaving program that the U.S. government implements and contracts with national agencies to support the arrival of refugees, Shepard said CWS is one of those agencies. In North Carolina, CWS welcomes refugees who are arriving through the U.S. Refugee Admissions program, helping them with everything, including picking them up at the airport, securing housing, getting kids enrolled in school and English classes, getting them connected to healthcare, helping them find jobs and generally restart and rebuild their lives in the United States. “Hundreds of Afghans came to the Triad, and even more arrived in other cities across North Carolina,” Shepard said. “Many of them came with little to nothing.” Seddiqi was in that category. “I lost everything you can imagine — my money, my house, my company, and part of my family,” he said. “No one wants to be a refugee, but this was a situation where there was no other option. I leave or get killed. I left everything and I don’t know what has happened to it.” With his mother and two sisters, Seddiqi first landed in the Washington, D.C., area and was soon offered a job. But instead of starting his employment, he and his family were sent to Greensboro. A year has passed, and the culture shock is palpable.
Overheard at the Water Cooler Page 17
Adapting to life in Greensboro
The Kabul Seddiqi knew was a bustling city of nearly 5 million people. Greensboro, a medium-sized city of 300,000 was no place he wanted to be. But over the recent months, he has come to love his new home. “The first few days, it was very hard. I wanted to stay in D.C. but I had no choice,” he said. “Greensboro is a nice place, and I have learned it’s not large cities and buildings that matter. People matter, and it matters for a community to be welcoming to a person who has lost everything.” To a visitor, Sediqqi, sitting in a private office with a warm smile on his face, appears comfortable and well-established, but his friendly calm demeanor can’t completely erase his stress and concern for his family — those who fled Afghanistan with him, and those who are still there. His sisters are 18 and 16. One is in high school, and the other is taking English classes with her mother. All are still adjusting to their new lives in the United States. Still in Afghanistan are his father, two brothers and another sister. He constantly worries about them and holds out hope for a future reunion in the United States. Along with rebuilding his life, Seddiqi has had to rebuild his dreams. He learned about CWS online and joined the team as an interpreter. But the agency quickly noticed his drive and his skills and education — he has a degree in information technology from Behzad Institute of Higher Education. He also had demonstrated his leadership within the newly established Afghan community in Greensboro, providing interpretation services for those who could not speak English, and helping other refugees settle in, Shepard said. “We learned he had a lot of interest in the legal services side of things and had significant experience completing his own paperwork and navigating through the immigration process,” she said. “So we moved him into a paralegal position where he works as an integral part of our immigration legal services team.”
Paralegal job allows him to help others
While Seddiqi never imagined he would be a
Q&A Jasmine Williams ◆ Page 18 Traci B. Wolfe ◆ Page 19
■ See DREAM Page 16