Rahmatullah Hamdard and Sulaiman Sulaimankhil thought they would be stuck in Afghanistan last year when American troops pulled out of their country. But ten months later, they’ve found a home and a welcoming community in St. Louis.
KMOX’s Joe Pott caught up with Hamdard and Sulaimankhil in May as they attended their first-ever Cardinals game.
“Well, I’ve heard a lot about baseball before coming here, and I always wanted to watch a match in person in the stadium,” Sulaimankhil said. “So it’s been fantastic, and the Cardinals are doing great.”
Hamdard and Sulaimankhil are finally settled in the city. But when U.S. troops left Afghanistan last summer, they dealt with a lot of change and loss.
"First, starting with the collapse of the country, it was pretty devastating and pretty sad,” Sulaimankhil said. “We lost hope and everything. All the dreams and everything we had suddenly crashed down."
The two men grew up in American-occupied Afghanistan, and as teenagers started to take leadership roles in organizations. They eventually founded the group HELA (Hope for Education and Leadership in Afghanistan). The group seeks to provide leadership opportunities for younger Afghans, both men and women.
As the Taliban began to regain control in Afghanistan, HELA was targeted because of the opportunities they were creating for young people, specifically women.
“After when we started that organization back in the country, we received several threats from different terrorist groups and we were told to stop that kind of work because we were equally providing opportunities for men and women,” Hamdard said.
But they never got discouraged — they just continued with their work. And eventually, they began to work on making it over to the United States to continue their work here.
They said they’ve found hope in St. Louis.
“People here were so welcoming. People welcomed us with warm hugs. That gave us a new hope. We started our new life here. We started to have our new home here,” Sulaimankhil said.
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Now that they've found a community in St. Louis, they hope their work can continue and that they can keep providing more opportunities for Afghan youth.
Listen to the full conversation here: