APRIL 7 • 2022 | 13

Shafi has also been helping 
the other refugees with their 
needs as he speaks such good 
English, Farber added.

SHAFI MOVES FORWARD
Farber went with Shafi to the 
bank to help him open an 
account. One of the bankers, 
Marge, became interested in 
Shafi’s journey and wanted to 
help. 
Marge had some contacts 
she wanted Shafi to meet, 
including a job recruiter and a 
prominent woman in the com-
munity whose husband owns a 
talent agency. 
Through meeting the latter, 
Shafi has recently been hired 
at an upscale LA Italian restau-
rant as a greeter and seater. 
“They love him,” Farber said. 
“He is learning all about Italian 
cuisine.” 
The Farbers also helped 
make contacts for Shafi and 
his family’s post-hotel living 
arrangements. With their 
help, as well as the help of the 
prominent husband and wife 
connected to the LA entertain-
ment world who are acting as 
co-signers, Shafi and his family 
are expected to move into a 
two-bedroom, two-bath apart-
ment in April. The husband 
and wife team are helping Shafi 
with whatever the difference 
is in the rent and what he can 
afford to pay for the first year. 
The Farbers have also helped 
Shafi get a Social Security card, 
a work permit and driver’s 
license. Shafi recently bought a 
2012 Honda Civic. 

BECOMING NEW 
AMERICANS
Shafi’s wife recently got her 
first-ever manicure. 
 “
After we finished, she 
turned to me with tears in 
her eyes and said, ‘I am so 
lucky to be in America. I can 

do anything here. I can look 
beautiful,’” Farber recalled. 
Farber says Shafi, his family 
and all the other refugees have 
been extremely appreciative of 
their help, and they show it in 
their own special ways.
“Because they don’t have 
any money, they make you 
food,” Farber said. “I would 
say three nights a week we get 
a knock on the door, and we 
get food delivery that one of 
the families has made. This is 
not just Shafi’s family. Other 
families we have helped are so 
appreciative.” 
Being a longtime teacher, 
Farber has always been inter-
ested in culture and learning 
so she can help her students 
become better global citi-
zens of the world. But being 
able to learn firsthand about 
Shafi and his family’s culture, 

including having meals together 
where the two families bring 
their respective dishes, has been 
an experience of a lifetime. 
“We’ve brought them bagels, 
lox and blintzes and those kinds 
of Jewish foods from the deli. 
And hamburgers, french fries 
and hot dogs — American 
food. And then they made and 
brought theirs. What an experi-
ence,
” Farber said.
In the process of leaving 
Afghanistan, Shafi was separat-
ed from his siblings. One ended 
up in Germany. One is still in 
Afghanistan. Shafi said it’s been 
hard being without them, and 
he’s working to find an immi-
gration lawyer to try to reunite. 
With Shafi missing his home 
in Afghanistan, the Farbers 
have gone to great lengths to 
connect him to a new home, 
Detroit included.

“We bought Shafi some stuff 
from Detroit. We ordered him 
a (Detroit) Tigers T-shirt, a 
Michigan T-shirt, just different 
things so he can feel connected,
” 
she said.
Shafi is thankful for the 
network of people who have 
helped him and his family, most 
of all Farber herself. 
“It’s been really great. She’s 
been helping us a lot,
” he said. 
“She’s been finding people from 
all different places, talking with 
them, and they come over and 
bring so much stuff and dona-
tions.
“Coming here, I knew 
nobody. If she were not here, I 
would have nothing. She’s my 
mom, my American mom,
” 
Shafi laughed. “She’s really nice, 
really kind.
” 
Shafi is also appreciative of 

“COMING HERE, I KNEW NOBODY. IF SHE 
WERE NOT HERE, I WOULD HAVE NOTHING. 

SHE’S MY MOM, MY AMERICAN MOM.”

— SHAFI

continued from page 14

One of the dinners the families 
have had together in the hotel 
courtyard area. Shafi, his wife, 
mother and two children, and 
Karen Farber’s grandson Zach.

