The Santa Clarita Chapter

In August of 2021, we sat in front of our TV’s watching the NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan after having been there for decades, essentially since before we were born. The chaos and pain the departure caused the families who wanted to leave but were unable to leave was hard to watch. Over time, we found ourselves wondering what would happen to the families who were actually able to get out. Where would they end up? How would those families adjust to their new homes?  What about the kids who were our age, what would happen to them?

We reached out to the International Institute of Los Angeles (IILA), a 100-year-old organization that helps to resettle refugees from other countries in Los Angeles. Cambria Tortorelli, President and CEO of IILA and Alex Ngyuen, IILA Development Director, agreed to introduced us to Afghan refugee families with teenagers.

Once the Afghan refugees began arriving in Los Angeles, we helped the IILA greet families at the airport, delivered cellphone and debit cards to their temporary housing, and did our best to answer their questions. Shortly after the first arrivals, we got word that a large group of families with teens would be temporarily house at a hotel in Santa Clarita, CA.

The following Saturday, we organized a meet-up with the newly landed teens at their hotel. We brought snacks and a hope to get to know each other. Thankfully, a few of the teens spoke English and we were lucky to also have the assistance of a 17-year-old translator named Mursal. Over the next few hours we sat around learning about their homes and schools in Afghanistan and answering questions and answering their questions about the American high school experience. The Afghan teens were very warm and friendly people, and it was great getting to know them and we all left pretty excited about having connected.

After our first meeting, we set up a group chat and texted each other throughout the week about how our days were going and continued our conversations from that meeting. We were all excited to meet up the following Saturday.

We spent the next several months going out to Santa Clarita. We played parking lot soccer, board games, cornhole, and even took them to a high school championship soccer game.

We made jokes with them, learned so much more about their experiences coming to this country and their impressions of life of in U.S.. We quickly realized that we were all the same, teenagers with the same desire to make friends and have fun.

Now as our new friends move on from the hotel to more permanent housing in San Diego, Sacramento, Encino and Glendale, we are building on these friendships. Presently, we are reaching out to American high schoolers in those areas to support and hopefully become friends with them, too.

It’s important to add that Cambria and Alex graciously mentored us throughout the entire project and really supported our desire to connect with the refugee teenagers coming to LA from Afghanistan. We are grateful to Cambria, Alex and everyone at IILA for helping us to make our idea a reality.