After watching Kabul fall to the Taliban in August, a Galway community was determined to do something to help. Just a few months later, 10 Afghan citizens fleeing the country began integrating with locals, living and working in the Craughwell, Castletaylor and Carrabane areas of the county.
Eight women and two men, ranging in age from 12 to 32 years old, have been welcomed into the homes of nearby families, one working in a bakery, another in a grocery store and others in different local businesses.
Local woman Anne McNamara said she has always been concerned about the treatment of women. “I really felt that in the Syrian war that I just stood by and did nothing, and I wasn’t going to do it a second time, so for me I was really keen to do something and to help women get out of the country.”
She contacted Galway East Fine Gael TD Ciarán Cannon for assistance in facilitating Afghani residents fleeing the country. Her determination – together with the commitment of the surrounding community to give the new arrivals places to live, jobs, and mentorships – made it all happen quickly. Mr Cannon worked with Government to ensure all new arrivals had legitimate refugee status, PPS numbers and, as a result, were able to come into the country legally.
Having left Ireland herself in the 1980s, Ms McNamara said this latest experience has caused a shift in her attitude towards her home country. "I thought, this country has got its act together. I'm really proud of us. It knows what it stands for and it knows what's important."
Mr Cannon and his wife have taken a husband and wife from the group into their home. “Local people were literally throwing open their doors to these young people from Kabul, and welcoming them into their homes, and Ali and Zahara have become a wonderful, and such an important part of our lives, our family, and of our home,” he said.
Voluntary
Local families are not doing so for financial gain, as the scheme is voluntary. Ms McNamara said hosts are reimbursed for “big-ticket items” but “food and clothes and all that kind of stuff came from the hosts – there was no money for just doing it.”
Each of the new arrivals have personal development plans and mentors in the area to help them organise continuation or return to education and gain better English language skills.
“Their biggest challenge right now is gaining competency in the English language. Some of them are quite good, some of them are quite poor and then everybody in between,” Mr Cannon said.
Many of the women hope to stay in Ireland. Twenty-one-year-old Zahara, and her husband Ali, are in the process of looking for an apartment in Loughrea, and "within the next two to three weeks they will be fully employed locally in Loughrea, and they will have a place to call their own", Mr Cannon added.
Breshna (19), who works in a hotel in the area, said Galway is a “beautiful city” and “of course” she wants to stay.
Zarghona (26) said she wishes to return to education in Ireland, and dreams of becoming a lecturer at NUI Galway, having always wanted to study abroad. "Now, it's become really easier because I am here . . . I can study both for my master's and PhD. My plan is to continue my master's in biochemistry," she said.
Irish weather
And she is not put off by the Irish weather, loving a rainy day, "because in Afghanistan you do not have enough rainy days and snow, and four seasons in one day".
The women also expressed relief at being able to have freedom to live their lives as women in Ireland. "I think I'm always living in Ireland forever, because Ireland, it improves every day. I love it to be an independent woman," Parawana, who just recently turned 18, and is working in a bakery in Kilcolgan, said. She would love to open her own restaurant.
“The Taliban do not let the ladies go outside . . . Right now, they cannot go outside, and they cannot go to university, or do things for continuing life,” Parawana said. “It’s boring and terrible, and also dangerous.”
Mr Cannon and Ms McNamara suggest this type of community initiative could replace the direct provision system in future.
Mr Cannon likened the resettlement to “the meitheal of the 21st century. Now we’re anxious to move away from direct provision, I think this is the model. I think a lot of Irish rural communities have the wherewithal, have the necessary compassion and integrity to be able to do this over and over again,” he said.
Ms McNamara said that she thinks “Ireland is having its day”.
“We have a lot to teach the world and I would love it to start with what we’re doing here. I want us to write down what’s working, what’s not working. I want to capture the experience of the girls,” she said.