AUSTIN, Texas — As the U.S. military pulled out of Afghanistan, Raz Mohammad Shinwari and his family were trying to escape.
Shinwari worked as a translator for the Navy and knew he could not stay in his home country as the Taliban took control.
"There is a three [step] process: the first process is to see the documents. Another one is the biometrics and the third one is, uh, medical," Shinwari said. "Two months after the process, we came out from [Dona Ana Camp] and came to Austin."
Shinwari's documents helped him and his family escape from Afghanistan through Qatar; Germany; Washington, D.C.; El Paso, Texas; and finally land in Austin. He, his wife and his children had to leave the rest of his family behind. He still talks to them regularly.
"I talking about Austin, new life. My kids go to the school and talking, like, how's the country? How's the city and new life? I'm also talking with my father and mother and brothers, 'So how's the condition of Afghanistan? How's the weather?'" Shinwari recalled in his broken English.
Shinwari said they're doing well, overall. Now, he's focused on adjusting to living in Austin.
"My kids are happy in Austin. So four kids start the school at Travis Elementary and two are little, so they're happy!" Shinwari said.
He and his family live in a southeast Austin apartment complex for now while Shinwari looks for work. Because of his engineering background and education through Boeing in Afghanistan, he's hoping to get another job in that field. If not, he hopes to work for Austin ISD and help out where he can.
PHOTOS: Raz Mohammad Shinwari and family
When he first moved to Austin, he knew nobody but knew there was a small, but strong, Afghan community in the Texas capital. Shahid Khan Paktiawal and Ramin Mohamand helped get Shinwari and his family settled.
Paktiawal works as a real estate agent. Mohamand, who is on the board of directors for the Afghan New Cultural Center, works with nonprofits like Austin Jews & Partners for Refugees to connect Afghan refugees with local resources like clothes and money to help pay rent. Both also immigrated from Afghanistan within the past 10 years.
"New arrivals, they need more help," Mohamand said. "A lot of Afghans, they need the document to be done, like, let's say, their benefits, their food stamps, their Medicaid, so their kids Medicaid, they need to be enrolled in the school. So these things need a lot of work, but it needs a lot of help, hands-on."
"It's one of the issues for the newcomers that they are from Afghanistan, they're coming from some other country and because of lack of the rental history and income is really hard for them to find a house," Paktiawal said.
Mohamand and Paktiawal have known each other for years but only met Shinwari briefly. Even so, Shiwnari thanked them profusely during the interview with KVUE. According to Mohamand, refugees now are having a much more difficult time getting the documents they need.
Refugee Services of Texas (RST) organizes a lot of the efforts to obtain proper documents, but Mohamand says RST has been overwhelmed with the additional refugees coming to Texas after the Taliban took Kabul late last year.
As Shinwari settles into his new home. He will always miss Afghanistan. Mohamand and Paktiawal will too. But now the three refugees are looking ahead as much as they can.
"I was born in Afghanistan, and Afghanistan is my country, I miss it a lot," Shinwari said.
"Even if you ask a kid from Afghanistan, it's our home country, it's Afghanistan," Mohamand said. "This is where we were and this is where we grow, this is where we study and this is where we learn how to live. ... I miss it. I want to go. I want to visit. I hope I get a chance to go."
"I do miss Afghanistan, but the U.S. is my second home," Paktiawal said. "This is my home. I love this country. I will work for it. I will fight for it. The same as I did for [Afghanistan against the Taliban]."
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