NEW MILFORD (Agencies): Twenty-year-old Afghan refugee Mohammad Mohammadi spends his days taking online classes, sightseeing and bonding with his New Milford family.
Mohammadi has come a long way from his homeland, where last August, he, along with a cousin and uncle, were able to get on a plane and escape the bombings after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. They were among 800 people on a US C-17 in an Air Force evacuation flight from Kabul to Qatar.
Since coming to New Milford in late January, Mohammadi has been living with residents Eileen and Gerard Monaghan. He plans to stay with them at least six months or longer, while he acclimates himself to his new culture and plans the next chapter in his life. Mohammadi’s path to New Milford began through Eilieen Monaghan’s involvement with New Milford Refugee Resettlement, a group of volunteers from four local churches whose mission is to help immigrants successfully integrate into the New Milford community.
“We got this email that said this young man in Fort Pickett, Virginia, and his cousin have been taken out of Afghanistan and placed in a home in Pennsylvania, and they were looking for a place for a cousin, Mohammad,” said Eileen Monaghan, 77, who previously taught fifth grade at John Pettibone School in New Milford. Her husband Gerard Monaghan, 76, was a newspaper journalist. The couple, who is retired and has four grown children and nine grandchildren, were immediately interested in getting involved.
“I worked with refugees in the past. Also, Gerard took a Cambodian family into his home for a year in 1975,” Eileen Monaghan said. To take in Mohammadi, the couple worked with the Sponsor Circle Program, a community-led resettlement initiative. To get the financial support to bring Mohammadi to Connecticut, the couple collected donations.
“We raised the money by sending letters to our friends,” Eileen Monaghan said. In total, the couple raised over $6,000. They were interviewed over Zoom and went through an extensive background check. After the fall of Kabul in August, Mohammadi and his five siblings and parents had been trying to get out of Afghanistan, since conditions were becoming increasingly dangerous there.
However, there never seemed to be a safe opportunity to do so. “The situation was not good and the Taliban was hurting everyone,” Mohammadi said. He and his family made several trips to Kabul International Airport, only to turn around and go back home. On Aug. 22, they tried one more time. Due to traffic, it took them about four hours to make the 45-minute trip to the airport. They stayed there for two days. At the airport, Mohammadi’s father gave Mohammadi documentation, showing proof of working for an American company, and Mohammadi was able to board the plane with his uncle and cousin.
“The rest of my family was supposed to get out a day after I did but, after a (suicide) bombing in Kabul airport on Aug. 26, they didn’t try again and decided to stay in Kabul instead of risking death in the airport,” he said. Nearly 200 people were killed in that bombing. Mohammadi said he’s afraid for the safety of his family back home and hopes to get them out of Afghanistan as soon as possible.
He recalled an incident in 2020 when a friend of his, who was also named Mohammad, was shot and killed by the Taliban inside a classroom at Kabul University. Three gunmen stormed the campus, killing 22 people and wounding 50 others. Several weeks ago, Mohammad’s family had a very close call with the Taliban.
“They were doing a house to house search, looking for guns, and they came into my family’s home,” he said, adding the Taliban threw items all around, “trashing” the place. The following day, they came back and searched again. “I told my family to delete my number from their phone because it may be dangerous for them,” he said. Eileen Monaghan has been helping to make Mohammadi feel at home by cooking Afghan dishes — with Mohammadi’s mother on WhatsApp, tweaking recipes as they’re cooking.
He said the biggest culture shock is the cold weather, since Afghanistan never gets as cold as the US. “He is constantly cold,” Eileen Monaghan said. Mohammadi has recently been hired as a translator with New Milford Refugee Resettlement. He hopes to get a driver’s license soon and enroll at Western Connecticut State University this summer. He eventually would like to get his MBA at Harvard University in homeland security and accounting. Members of the public may sponsor Mohammadi. Checks should be made out to Mohammad Mohammadi and sent to Webster Bank, 53 Main St., New Milford CT 06776.
With everything Mohammadi has been through in his young life, Eileen Monaghan said he represents the “resiliency of the human spirit — to fight to get out and to be as focused, as positive.” Since Mohammadi began living with the Monaghans, they’ve gotten very attached to him. “We will keep him until he’s established,” Eileen Monaghan said. “But hopefully, he’ll be part of our lives forever.”
