Assad - Afghanistan

I met Assad in 2011 working in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where he managed our team's projects in Kandahar City, one of the toughest places in the world to work. In my experience, Afghans are shrewd survivors, and Assad a quintessential example of this. A native of Southern Afghanistan, Assad was a translator for the British, Canadian, and U.S. military forces during the war against the Taliban. Once he came to work for our team, he provided over five years of continuity to our projects amid a constantly revolving door of expatriates, maintaining key relationships with local government, communities, and the complex web of power-brokers in Kandahar City. Working in one of the most dangerous places in the world, he took risks on a daily basis to help his community resist the Taliban. I'll never forget the happy day when I was able to meet him and his family at the airport upon their arrival in the United States in 2014 as Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) recipients. The SIV process is years long, and in the end, Assad qualified because of the considerable personal risk to him and his family due to his years of service to U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. Life in the U.S. as an Afghan immigrant hasn't been easy, even as a highly qualified individual with excellent English skills and considerable work experience. But Assad is a survivor, and he is persevering through the difficulties to provide a better life for his family, which includes four children as of this year, when he and his wife welcomed a new baby!