ON THE COVER

W

hen Metro Detroiter Karen 
Farber and her husband arrived 
in Los Angeles in mid-December 
for their yearly winter trip, she had no idea 
what was to come.
Farber, a semi-retired teacher who has 
taught 45 years in the Farmington Public 
Schools district, was visiting her daughter, 
son-in-law and grandchildren as she does 
every year.
But a chance encounter at a hotel barbe-
cue turned this trip into an experience of 
a lifetime, spurring grassroots community 
involvement and a network of family, friends 
and strangers banding together to assist 
Afghan refugees. 

MEETING A NEW FRIEND
A few weeks into the Farbers’ stay at the Los 
Angeles hotel they call home every winter, 
Karen Farber noticed a big group of peo-
ple at the hotel she had never seen before. 
Farber figured they were from a foreign 
country and wondered if they were having a 
convention.
One day soon after, Farber was at the 
hotel’s outside barbecue spot when one of 
the individuals walked up to her. 
“I’m grilling lamb chops and this man 
comes up and asks if he can take a picture 
of the food. I said of course. He said he had 
never seen anything like it. I asked where he 
was from and he said Afghanistan,” Farber 
said. 
The man, Shafi, was staying at the hotel 
with his wife, mother, 4-year-old son and 
1-year-old daughter along with nearly 100 
other refugees from Afghanistan (including 
dozens of other families) who fled the coun-
try after the violent Taliban takeover in late 
summer 2021. 
Farber and Shafi started talking about all 
he and his family had endured the previous 
few months. Shafi showed her pictures and 
videos he had of when the U.S. brought 
planes into Afghanistan and helped people 
evacuate. 

Metro Detroiter and network of 
family, friends and strangers band 
together to assist Afghan refugees. 

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

10 | APRIL 7 • 2022 

The

Language
Universal

Shafi’s wife (right), Zach’s classmate Syd, Farber’s grandson Zach and 
Shafi and his children, delivering boxes of Amazon wish list supplies.

