News & Views

Resettled Afghans Find New Lives and New Schools in Philadelphia

“The first day of high school is always hard. It’s doubly difficult if you are not fluent in the language and barely know where you live.

That was where 15-year-old Ali Wahaj Mosakhil found himself in early December, trying to navigate from his new home in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Olney to Samuel Fels High School in Northeast Philadelphia.

Fortunately he had HIAS Pennsylvania, in the person of Michelle Ferguson, to help him get to school and back. As high school and post-secondary lead instructor on the Resettlement Team she reassured Ali Wahaj and his father Esmatullah that she would get him safely home.”

Read more here.