OUR MINISTRIES BY KATHY WILLIAMS
Rocking her infant son, Mohibullah, in her arms, Zargona Haidar looked over the fabric that Sister Ruth Ann Haunz had brought her to sew clothes for her family. Her husband, Janat Khan
Haidar, smiled as two of their sons, 2-year-old Asadullah and 4-year-old Nasratullah, played peekaboo with the visitors to their apartment. Soon, 6-year-old Freshta, their daughter, and 8-year-old son Jawid would arrive home from school. It was a typical day for the Afghan refugee family for the past two months, but before that, there were many months of uncertainty and chaos. As our translator, Siddiq, explained, Janat had worked for the
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United States Army as an escort, which was a type of bodyguard. The family lived four hours south of Kabul in Khost, which is close to the border of Pakistan. Working for the Army gave the family financial stability. Janat and Siddiq both said that the Afghan people love the United States for all that the country did for their people. When Kabul fell, they had to leave siblings and other family members behind in Afghanistan, but feel it is worth it for the better life and safety that they can find in America.
use his military contacts to get the proper documentation to leave. They had to make the hazardous journey to Kabul, and then wait a week in a hotel until they were able to get inside the airport. They flew to Qatar, then Germany, then Washington, D.C., before arriving in Fort McCoy in Wisconsin. Once at the army base, they had to share a tent and one bathroom with three other families, spending four months there before coming to Louisville. Zargona was 8 ½ months pregnant when they fled Afghanistan, and baby Mohibullah was born when they arrived in the United States.
Taliban, and that Siddiq’s teenage sister could no longer attend high school with the Taliban in control. They both said they would only return to their country if the Taliban were no longer in power. Reports coming from Afghanistan now cite rising homelessness, poverty and food scarcity. 1
worked with refugee families in the past in her role as pastoral associate at St. Gabriel Parish and with a family that the Ursuline Sisters once sponsored, as well. She now manages a Dare to Care Mobile Food Pantry with 15 generous volunteers and organizes and supports virtual tutoring for children through St. John Paul II Parish. Sister Ruth Ann attended an information session that Catholic Charities hosted in early September
They told us that one of Janat’s brothers had been killed by the
This summer, when the United States was in the process of withdrawing from Afghanistan, Janat and his family were able to
Enter Sister Ruth Ann Haunz and an ecumenical effort in the Buechel/Hikes Point neighborhood to sponsor a refugee family in Louisville. Sister Ruth Ann has
