Afghan female refugees celebrate in Modesto a new start as small-business owners

Kevin Valine
·3 min read
8

Thirteen female refugees from Afghanistan gathered Friday in a Modesto park to celebrate their completion of a program that is expected to improve their families’ economic well-being as well as enable the women to offer a critically needed service.

The women are the first graduates of a child care microenterprise development program offered by the International Rescue Committee Turlock and Modesto Junior College.

Turlock resident Enjila Farokh Ahmadi told her fellow graduates at Davis Community Park that she wondered what the future would be for her and her family when they left Afghanistan for the United States. She dreamed of having her own business but did not know how to make that happen.

Then she met Halima Mohammadi, the IRC Turlock’s microenterprise business counselor.

“I got so lucky to be part of this program,” according to Mohammadi’s translation of Farokh Ahmadi’s remarks in Dari, one of the two main languages of Afghanistan. Pashto is the other.

Farokh Ahmadi also speaks Pashto and English, as well as Urdu and Hindi. She said in an interview that she started learning English in the third grade by watching movies on television.

Estori Afzali, greets IRC business counselor Halima Mohammadi, left, and IRC senior education and health promoter Katharina Beeler, right, during a graduation ceremony at Davis Park in Modesto Calif., on Friday, July 1, 2022. Seventeen women refugees from Afghanistan are the first graduates of the International Rescue Committee and Modesto Junior College’s child care microenterprise development program for home child-care licensing.

She said she and her husband and their three sons left Afghanistan in September 2020 because it no longer was safe because of her husband’s work with U.S. officials and the rise of the Taliban.

IRC senior education and health promoter Katharina Beeler said IRC Turlock learned about the need to teach women how to operate home-based child care businesses after surveying the women and men it serves in 2018.

Beeler told Friday’s graduates the surveys showed the women and men wanted to work, wanted to start their own businesses from home and needed child care to do that.

IRC Turlock worked with MJC in applying for a federal Office of Refugee Resettlement grant to train 40 women.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement states these grants “provide business opportunities to refugee women in a market where there is a shortage of child care providers.” Beeler said that is especially true in the Modesto area.

The first group of 20 women started about six months ago. Seventeen completed the program. Four could not make Friday’s graduation ceremony.

Enjila Farokh Ahmadi, right, talks about her experience going through IRC’s child-care microenterprise development program as IRC business counselor Halima Mohammadi, during a graduation ceremony at Davis Park in Modesto Calif., on Friday, July 1, 2022. Seventeen women refugees from Afghanistan are the first graduates of the International Rescue Committee and Modesto Junior College’s child care microenterprise development program for home child-care licensing.

The women have been in the United States from about one to two years.

IRC Turlock provided all the training for the program in such areas as women’s empowerment and financial and digital literacy. It brought in experts to instruct the women in child care. Mohammadi, the IRC’s microenterprise business counselor, translated for the women.

The graduates on Friday thanked Mohammadi and Jesus Salas, the IRC’s senior financial coach, for their support. The women also could avail themselves of MJC classes for English language learners during the program.

“You are always welcome at MJC,” Ruth Luman, a professor in the English language department who helped IRC Turlock apply for the grant, told the graduates. “You are all completely capable of learning English and being successful in business. ... You are the best. You are the best of our community.”

The 17 women who completed the program applied to the state for their child care licenses in June and should have them within 90 days.

About three dozen people, including IRC staff as well as the graduates’ friends and family, gathered in Davis Park for the ceremony. It ended with a potluck of Afghan food. The meal featured qabali, rice with carrots, raisins and spices, chapli kabab, ground meat with spices, and chicken karahi.

Shekiba Hakibi, left, talks about her experience going through IRC’s child-care microenterprise development program as IRC business counselor Halima Mohammadi, middle, and IRC senior education and health promoter Katharina Beeler, right, listen during a graduation ceremony at Davis Park in Modesto Calif., on Friday, July 1, 2022. Seventeen women refugees from Afghanistan are the first graduates of the International Rescue Committee and Modesto Junior College’s child care microenterprise development program for home child-care licensing.

Mohammadi said IRC Turlock is on track to resettle about 950 people when its fiscal year ends in September. She said that is a significant increase over a typical year and is because of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan with the Taliban’s takeover of the country.

The Bee reported in early June that IRC Turlock had struggled with the influx of refugees, and the office was understaffed when the evacuees started arriving in late 2021.

The International Rescue Committee operates worldwide and has offices in Sacramento, San Jose, San Diego, Los Angeles and Oakland.

Estori Afzali serves up some traditional Afghan food during a potluck lunch after a graduation ceremony at Davis Park in Modesto Calif., on Friday, July 1, 2022. Seventeen women refugees from Afghanistan are the first graduates of the International Rescue Committee and Modesto Junior College’s child care microenterprise development program for home child-care licensing.