Pictures in my head
By Hailey Sadler
Hailey Sadler
Gloucester, Va.
STORY SUMMARY
_______________________________________
When Kabul fell on August 15, 2021, Manizha Azizi’s life in Ellicott City, Maryland turned upside down. She lives in Ellicott City with her husband, also Afghan-American, and their four children. The news of Kabul’s fall took her back to fleeing Afghanistan with her family on foot when she was five years old. “I remember the journey with such vivid detail,” says Manizha Azizi. “It’s like pictures in my head. I close my eyes and I can still see them.”
For the past three weeks, Manizha has been spending 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week, connecting with recently resettled Afghan families, learning their individual needs, and hand-gathering and delivering items. The crisis has overtaken her life, but Manizha is committed. If she can offer a positive memory amid even one family’s journey through the trauma of displacement, she says it is worth it.
Manizha Azizi finds a shoe to fit the 8-year-old son in the Jan family, who recently arrived in the Washington metro area from Kabul, Afghanistan. When Kabul fell in August 2021, Manizha began collecting donations from friends, neighbors, and members of the community. “It’s heartbreaking,” she says. “I know what it feels like to go through what they’re going through.”
It’s 9:13 p.m. as Manizha drives home in the rain after coordinating a pick-up of donated furniture. Even at this hour, Manizha’s phone is still buzzing with WhatsApp messages from people looking to donate, as well as refugee families sharing needs. “It never stops,” she says.
Manizha’s youngest son, three-year-old Moussa, is woken up in the morning by Nayeli Lechuga, the family’s au pair, who has been offering extra support as Manizha’s mission consumes long hours.
In what has become her new normal routine, Manizha begins the day by loading up her car with the donations she has collected for specific families. She’ll start out with a schedule of families to visit, but the days rarely go as planned, as almost every family she visits leads to another relative or neighbor with urgent needs of their own.
Rafey Omar, Manizha’s husband, wades through piles of donations overflowing in their garage to say goodbye to their children before they leave to meet the school bus. His family arrived as refugees from Afghanistan in the US when he was one year old.
Manizha, right, assembles a dining room table with the help of her friend, Zainab Senhaji Rhazi, left. The table is for a single mother with three children who recently arrived from Kabul, Afghanistan. The family also needs a couch, which Manizha will try to find for them.
Manizha explains employment options to a man who spent most of his career working as an interpreter. As an Afghan herself, Manizha is able to serve as a bridge between families and a resettlement system that can be overwhelming and bureaucratic.
As the sun rises, Manizha has a moment of stillness alone. After two sips of coffee, she is already working to meet the individual needs of the next Afghan families arriving in her community.
Manizha and Zainab Senhaji Rhazi research a nearby diaper bank for a family who has a 35-day-old baby.
On the final stop of the day, Manizha shares the toys she’s collected for the Jan family. After learning they are out of food and have not been able to communicate with their caseworker, she extends her day to go grocery shopping for them.
It is dark as Manizha finally returns home, pausing for a moment by the car to make sure she’s not forgetting anything. Tomorrow at 6 a.m., she will get up and begin again.