The Foreign Service Journal, March 2013

32 MARCH 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Afghanistan. USAID soon donated an equal amount. A couple of days later, Parvez, Khalil and I drove to the complex of three-story, gray, rectangular office buildings that the Soviet Army had once occupied, which the Red Crescent would now use to house the returnees until spring. Every window and door was gone, along with all of the fixtures. On the entry level, boys ran around us, yelling and tugging at our coats. The girls smiled but kept their distance. A few people from the Refugee Ministry sat at small tables registering people and handing out plastic bags of food and sun- dries. Men had started putting plastic sheets on the windows, and outside others were digging latrines and repairing a water pump. On the upper levels, families from the camp we had visited and others had already moved into each room, their belongings piled in corners. Women cooked on charcoal braziers on the landings. As we walked down a hall, a stocky man with a wooden leg waved to us and offered us tea, pointing to a metal pot sitting on a small stove in the middle of the floor. Bits of sleet came through the open window in his room. He had covered the floor with dark-red wool rugs and stacked duffel bags, blankets, boxes andmore rugs in the corners. His wife handed each of us a small, steaming glass cup of tea, then retreated to just outside the room. The four of us sat on the rugs and sipped the warmbeverage for a fewminutes as the man told us he had fought in the jihad against the Soviets. That was how he lost his leg. He had been with the Taliban early on, but didn’t like themonce they took over. Now, he worked where he could. As we left the building, I felt hopeful that this small success could serve as a model for deeper cooperation among the Afghan government, the Red Crescent and the United States in the overall relief effort that winter. Yes, it was clear that the Red Crescent and Afghan government expected no letup in the demands from an endless line of displaced people. But like the man who had invited us to drink tea with him at the shelter, Afghans had already seen many foreign armies and officials come and go. While this was a bad winter, spring would come. William Schofield, a retired State Department Foreign Service officer, served as refugee coordinator in Kabul from 2004 to 2005, among many other assignments . Making a Difference BY MAHA ANGELINA ARMUSH A s a refugee resettlement officer in the Bureau of Popula- tion, Refugees and Migration, I sympathize deeply with the plight of all individuals fleeing persecution for a better life in America. It is tremendously rewarding to work with our overseas resettlement support centers to help refugees navigate the process, so that they can finally get on an airplane and come here. Let me share the stories of two brave individuals I’ve recently assisted. After the parents of an Afghan homosexual were killed, he fled the country to escape threats on his own life. First in Iran, then in Pakistan and Turkey, he was trafficked by militias and armed groups for not conforming to social norms of gender identity, and was forced to commit demeaning sexual acts for his captors. Undaunted, he continued to put his trust in people, yet the abuse continued. Even in the country where he first received asylum and was protected by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the social discrimina- tion against him was severe. Fortunately, the joint efforts of PRM’s resettlement support center, the Department of Homeland Security (which interviews refugee applicants), and the International Organization for Migration eventually helped him overcome multiple adminis- trative hurdles to arrive in America this past December. I am delighted he is finally free from persecution and able to live as a truly free man. Then there is the Iranian woman who fled persecution and potential execution for having sex out of wedlock. After fleeing her home country for Turkey, she registered with UNHCR and awaited processing to come to the United States. Then one day, a passing train plowed into her, tore off one of her limbs, fractured her ribs and crushed her skull. Her doctors doubted she would survive, but sheer willpower pulled her through after several weeks in the hospital. Embassy Ankara expedited a visa appointment for her mother, collaborating with several agencies and offices, so that she could accompany her injured daughter to the United States. I recognized how hard it was to claim our efforts were effective when people were freezing to death down the street from President Hamid Karzai’s office.