Stranger Becomes Neighbor

After more than a year in America, 5-year-old Ava - who we met earlier in the podcast - is still living with her aunts in Salt Lake City, while her parents remain in Afghanistan. The urgency to bring them to the U.S. is underscored by a terrifying visit by the Taliban.

Meanwhile, the family’s future in America, along with most of the Afghans who were evacuated to the US remains uncertain. They apply for asylum but don’t know whether they will get an answer before the temporary humanitarian parole allowing them to live in the U.S. expires. Will they be sent back to the country they fled for their lives? A volunteer in the neighborhood who they call “Mom” is determined to help the family. She joins forces with US military veterans and faith-based groups to advocate for passage of legislation in Congress.

Also in this episode, we get updates on others we’ve been following in this podcast including Sima, the soldier from the Female Tactical Platoon. She meets a lawyer who volunteers to help her with her asylum application. And Sima gets an opportunity that is too good to pass up, but it means saying good-bye to the friends she’s made in Utah.

For more information including pictures and a transcript of this episode, visit us at kslpodcasts.com.

For more on Hope4Afghanistan, visit the website: hope4afghanistan.org.

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Stranger Becomes Neighbor is sponsored by Better Help.

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Americans know very little about the Afghan special forces known as the Zero Units who were instrumental to the war on terror in Afghanistan, but now they’re living among us in America. One of these Afghan veterans has a family of four with another baby on the way, and they are in desperate need of a home. A neighborhood pulls together to help them, even though it means moving them far from refugee services. The neighbors pour their time and energy into the family, with at least a dozen people helping them on a regular basis, and donations coming from all directions.

But what about all the other refugees who aren’t getting this help? We find another family in a similar situation. The father is a veteran who served in the Zero Units and they are also expecting a baby. But this family recently received an eviction notice, and they don’t know where they will live when the baby comes.

For more information including pictures and a transcript of this episode, visit us at kslpodcasts.com.

For more on Hope4Afghanistan, visit the website: hope4afghanistan.org.

Joining KSL Podcasts Premium is a great way to support our show and to get our bonus content. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts.

Stranger Becomes Neighbor is sponsored by Better Help.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This holiday week, we're unlocking a BONUS episode!

An experiment to allow women in Afghanistan to help U.S. special forces during combat raids was a full-fledged program by the time the American military pulled out of the country in 2021. Sergeant Rebekah Edmondson was there as the Cultural Support Program began and Americans started training women from Afghanistan to became soldiers as part of the Female Tactical Platoon.

In a candid interview, Edmondson gets honest about the challenges of developing trust across different cultures and under pressures of war. Now she feels a personal responsibility to make sure these Afghan soldiers are supported in America. Rebekah’s work continues now with the PenFed foundation to assist these women who were allies to the U.S.

For more information on the PenFed Foundation’s Afghan Rescue and Resettlement program, visit penfedfoundation.org

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For more, including pictures, visit us at kslpodcasts.com

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When thousands of Afghans arrived in US communities in a short time frame, the refugee agencies were challenged to meet the needs of the evacuees. It fell on regular Americans to try to fill in the gaps.

This story follows the efforts of two especially driven volunteers: one a former refugee herself, the other a stay-at-home mother of five. They reach the limits of what they can do alone, and try to figure out how to build a network big enough to meet all the needs they see. In the beginning, many people wanted to help, but as time goes by and other events take over the news, they find American attention and interest in Afghans is waning.

For more information including pictures and a transcript of this episode, visit us at kslpodcasts.com.

For more on Hope4Afghanistan, visit the website: hope4afghanistan.org.

And find Sisters of Service at https://sistersofservice.org/

For more information on the PenFed Foundation’s Afghan Rescue and Resettlement program, visit penfedfoundation.org.

Joining KSL Podcasts Premium is a great way to support our show and to get our bonus content. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts.

Stranger Becomes Neighbor is sponsored by Better Help.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Looking at a young woman in a headscarf quietly ringing up groceries at Walmart, you would never know the dramatic life she has lived. During the war in Afghanistan, the US military trained a small, elite force of Afghan women called the Female Tactical Platoon (FTP) to serve alongside American special forces on dangerous night raids of suspected Taliban homes and compounds.

These female soldiers had to keep their work secret, even from their own neighbors, because they were not safe in their own country.And when the Taliban took control, there was no plan in place to protect them.

That's when US soldiers - mostly women - who trained and worked with the FTPs decided they would have to be the ones to get this highly endangered group out of Afghanistan. They call themselves Sisters of Service.

This week on Stranger Becomes Neighbor, we follow the path of one remarkable Afghan soldier and the sisterhood that stands by her side.

For more information including pictures and a transcript of this episode, visit us at kslpodcasts.com.

For more on Hope4Afghanistan, visit the website: hope4afghanistan.org.

And find Sisters of Service at https://sistersofservice.org/

For more information on the PenFed Foundation’s Afghan Rescue and Resettlement program, visit penfedfoundation.org.

Joining KSL Podcasts premium is a great way to support our show and to get our bonus content. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts.

Stranger Becomes Neighbor is sponsored by Better Help.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Their father killed by the Taliban, a girl and her family fled to Pakistan then America, but this happened more than 20 years ago. Now, Nazifa is using her own experience as a refugee to help hundreds of Afghans who were part of the mass exodus when the U.S. military pulled out of the country in 2021. But she is only one person and the need is immense. Who will step up to help? 

For more information including pictures and a transcript of this episode, visit us at kslpodcasts.com.

Joining KSL Podcasts premium is a great way to support our show and to get our bonus content. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts.

Stranger Becomes Neighbor is sponsored by Better Help.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An ambitious 16-year-old girl has graduated two years early from her high school in Afghanistan. She is ready to take the medical school entrance exam to pursue her dream of being a doctor, but she never gets the chance. In August of 2021, the Taliban regains power and she and her family rushe to the Kabul airport. She is one of the lucky ones who makes it through the gate, but when she looks around, she realizes her parents didn’t make it. She, her sister and 4-year-old niece are evacuated to the U.S. All alone, they arrive on a snowy night to a cold, dark apartment with no power. This is the story of how well we helped our newest neighbors and the conditions that more than 80,000 refugees would be facing because of reduced resources. 

For more information including pictures and a transcript of this episode, visit us at kslpodcasts.com.

Joining KSL Podcasts Premium is a great way to support our show and to get our bonus content. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts.

Stranger Becomes Neighbor is sponsored by Better Help.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's been two years since the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan and some 80,000 people were  evacuated are living here in America. Understaffed resource agencies were flooded with thousands of people at once. This is the story of volunteers who stepped in to bridge the gap for the remarkable people who fought oppression, then needed to flee Taliban. 

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