GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — A year ago this week, airlifts from Kabul, Afghanistan were underway as US forces attempted to pull out allies and Afghan civilians out of the country as it rapidly fell to Taliban forces as the 20-year US Occupation of the country ended.
In the months that followed, 129 Afghan men, women, and children were resettled here in Green Bay as part of a nationwide resettlement effort. Karmen Lemke is with Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Green Bay, which helped coordinate the resettlement effort.
“The vast majority have found employment,” Lemke told WTAQ. “All the students have been enrolled in school and many of them continued into the summer.”
Some of the men who came to the area were not able to travel to the US with their families, Lemke says so far she isn’t aware of any that have been able to reunite with their loved ones in Afghanistan.
“The family members that were left behind, those stories are still unraveling,” said Lemke. “In terms of what does that look like, how can they begin to achieve the hopes and dreams of being reunited with family.”
In January, WTAQ spoke to two such refugees, Abdullah and Ali, who both were forced to leave their families behind during the evacuation when both men were trapped at the Kabul airport as the Taliban closed in. Ali was an employee at the airport, Abdullah worked with US forces.
Lemke says that Catholic Charities works with incoming refugees for a period of 90 days minimum, but that their door is still open to support refugees in the area.
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