Najia Sherzad Hoshmand, CEO of the Afghan American Community Center, holds out the flag of Afghanistan during the Indy International Festival in October.
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The attention had faded away.
In 2021, thousands of Afghan refugees had come to the United States to escape threats from the Taliban. They had passed through Camp Atterbury in southern Johnson County, where their stories garnered media attention and the local community rallied to provide their new neighbors with the essential building blocks of their lives in America.
Many of those refugees had been permanently resettled in the Indianapolis area, mostly on the southside. And more Afghans are settling here even now.
“For them, it’s like starting all over again. They left everything behind,” said Najia Sherzad Hoshmand, an Afghan refugee and southside Indianapolis resident. “There are so many people in need, who have come with nothing. So they need everything.”
Sherzad Hoshmand was one of the many Afghans who fled her homeland in search of safety and a fresh. Even as she is establishing her own life with her husband and four children in central Indiana, she works every day to help other Afghan refugees.
She is the founder of the Afghan American Community Center, an organization created to provide a place of community, collaboration, connection and education for Afghans. The goal is to make lives better for Afghans who are facing unimaginable trauma and multiple barriers as they start new lives in America, she said.
“The main purpose is to have a formal setup so we can assist and help these families out. I know what they’re going through,” she said. “After the initial three-month resettlement period, they are on their own. That’s where we step in and try to help them.”
Central Indiana and Camp Atterbury were one of the eight main staging areas for Operation Allies Welcome, a coordinated effort to welcome refugees into the country and prepare them for life in the United States. More than 88,000 Afghan nationals have arrived in the U.S. as part of the operation.
As Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in August 2021, people who had worked beside U.S. military forces and government officials were in danger of being captured and, most likely, killed.
Sherzad Hoshmand found herself in this precarious position. She had worked with the U.S. military for nearly seven years, in addition to serving with an international humanitarian organization to implement grant money toward infrastructure in Afghanistan.
“Because me and my other family members had connections with the U.S. government and the international community,” she said. “After the fall of Kabul, it was a big threat to stay in the country. We were the first people to be hunted by that militant group.”
Her family’s connections to the U.S. embassy in Kabul allowed them to find protection and a way out of Afghanistan. Sherzad-Hoshmand, her siblings and spouses, as well as their children — 20 people in total — had to leave behind essentially everything as arrangements were quickly made for them to travel out of the country on a military plane.
Their arduous journey took them first to Qatar, then Saudi Arabia and back to Qatar, before finally receiving permission to fly to the United States.
“It was a very chaotic journey for us,” she said. “It was a very difficult time for us all.”
Sherzad Hoshmand, her husband Aimal Hoshmand, her children Ahmad Mudasir Hoshmand, Ahmad Mujtaba Hoshmand, Ayaan Hoshmand and Bahar Hoshmand arrived at Camp Atterbury in September 2021, and were at the base for three months while they moved through the resettlement process.
While living at Camp Atterbury, Sherzad Hoshmand served as the representative for the occupants of her building, bringing the concerns of about 280 people to military officials. She helped the military with the distribution of the flood of donations arriving for Afghan refugees, was part of the food council to ensure everyone was properly fed and assisted fellow Afghans with their medical appointments, vaccinations, filling out documents and more.
The more Sherzad Hoshmand learned about central Indiana, and the more connections she made with the community, it made the most sense to resettle here as their permanent home.
“One, it was very close, and secondly, I was able to meet some people and make some friends. They told us a few things about the state, so we planned to resettle here,” she said.
Sherzad Hoshmand was asked by the office of Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett to be an interpreter for a job fair being held for the new arrivals from Afghanistan. The experience led to a job offer as a financial manager for the Marion County Treasurer’s Office.
She also enrolled in Indiana University Kelley School of Business to work on her master’s degree in business.
From her apartment on the southside of Indianapolis, Sherzad-Hoshmand is in the heart of the nearly formed Afghan community. More than 20 Afghan families live in the same apartment complex, allowing them to bond over their shared struggles and help each other cope.
Just as she did at Camp Atterbury, she was able to use her skills to help families navigate the available resources, the medical system, schools and other aspects of their new home.
Still, Sherzad Hoshmand wanted to reach out to all of the refugees who had resettled here.
“While many immigrant groups have organizations and advocates, Afghans do not. Many are struggling in silence with few places to turn,” she said.
Sherzad Hoshmand formed the Afghan American Community Center in response, which became an incorporated nonprofit through the state in November. Her work advocating for Afghan refugees and spotlighting their culture started months prior.
They were part of the Indianapolis International Festival, in which Afghanistan was represented for the first time. The country had a tree at the Global Village Welcome Center, a place of education and exploration featuring cultures from all over the world.
Sherzad-Hoshmand and others with the group distributed traditional clothing and head scarves to Afghan women who were having difficulty finding items in central Indiana.
In November, the Afghan American Community Center worked with the Southport branch of the Indianapolis Public Library and Ivy Tech Community College to enroll 15 Afghans in college programs and high-level English as second language classes. The organization also gave coats and warm clothing to the community.
“Some of the families came recently, and they did not have proper winter clothing. They weren’t prepared for it, and it’s really cold here in the winter,” Sherzad Hoshmand said.
She envisions the organization offering a broad range of social, cultural, educational, health, civic, economic and legal services that allow Afghans to grow, thrive and prosper.
A main focus of the Afghan American Community Center is helping women.
“The women are the most vulnerable ones, because they are at home with the kids,” Sherzad Hoshmand said. “These women are all very passionate; they want to go to school and they want to do some kind of job because this liberty they did not have back home.”
To achieve those goals and do work, the Afghan American Community Center needs help. Sherzad Hoshmand has used her connections to spread information about their mission and the difficulties facing the Afghan refugees who have come here.
She has spoken to churches, civic organizations and other groups to ask for help. Any kind of assistance — monetary, household items, clothing or anything people can help with — is desperately needed.
”I’ve always tried to spread this word to other what their needs are and how difficult it is to resettle and start a new life,” she said. “I’m really amazed and I’m really happy that there’s been an acceptance level among other communities.
“We want to try to have people remember us.”
AT A GLANCE
Afghan American Community Center
What: An organization aiming to make lives better for Afghans who are facing unimaginable trauma and multiple barriers as they start new lives in America.
Where: Based on the southside of Indianapolis
Who: Founded and led by Najia Sherzad Hoshmand
How to help: The organization is in need of donations, whether monetary, home furnishings, clothing and more, to support Afghans who have resettled in the area. The group is also looking for a space to house their operation. Contact Sherzad Hoshmand at [email protected]
Information: Find the Afghan American Community Center on Facebook
