Afghan refugees

Affinia Healthcare received nearly $390,000 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide Afghan refugees with health care education and wellness services.

“You cannot move forward if everybody else does not have the opportunity to move forward. That was a major philosophical shift to address racial and spatial inequities that have held this region back for far too long,” said one leader.

The International Institute’s Afghan Community Support Program is going across the country to tout local employment opportunities, business grants, education, housing and other resources in hopes of beckoning newly arrived Afghans to St. Louis.

Bilingual International Assistant Services, a St. Louis nonprofit received a $1.8 million federal grant to provide mental health support to Afghans who resettled in St. Louis after August 2021. The grant will provide therapy and other support to about 600 Afghans suffering from trauma of war.

Many women who fled Afghanistan and Syria over the past year are experiencing PTSD and suffering from other mental health illnesses. The Oasis International organization is hosting a free group therapy session for Afghans and Syrians refugees to help them as they learn to live in a new environment.

The International Institute of St. Louis is opening an Afghan Community Center and national Afghan Chamber of Commerce in south St. Louis in February. The center and chamber will offer financial literacy courses, after-school programs and entrepreneurship classes.

Newly arriving Afghans, who came to St. Louis after fleeing Afghanistan in August 2021 are settling into the city and creating businesses to build the economy. The International Institute of St. Louis has programs to help get Afghan businesses started.

In the coming months, the International Institute of St. Louis plans to welcome Afghan refugees from Albania, where they have been for months. Institute officials say they will be more prepared for the latest arrivals.

This month, the Biden Administration hopes to expedite the process by eliminating temporary humanitarian parole and concentrating resources instead on permanent visas.

The International Institute of St. Louis is ready to welcome more Afghan families and refugees from other countries. Officials with the U.S. State and Health and Human Services departments and the International Nonprofit Immigrant Organization met with International Institute officials Monday.