For nearly three years, a student-led club at Annandale High School has provided emotional and academic support to dozens of adolescent Afghan refugees and other immigrant students who have resettled in Fairfax County.
Recent Annandale High graduates and Afghan natives Sosan Barakzai and Husna Basiri established the Dunya Club in September 2021 to help their peers who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul adapt to their new environment and find a new community.
Since its founding, the club — whose name means “this world” in Arabic — has helped dozens of Afghan refugees and fostered connections among other groups of immigrants and refugees, spanning Eastern Europe to Central America and Southeast Asia, Meredith Hedrick, chair of Annandale High’s English for Speakers of Other Languages department, told FFXnow.
“It’s really cool to look at it three years down the road,” Hedrick said. “We didn’t know what was going to happen, and I feel really fortunate that it did work out. I thought of the club as one way to get kids used to the U.S. educational system, then to give them a sense of belonging, and finally, to provide a cultural connection.”
Finding inspiration through empathy
Before they created Dunya, Barakzai and Basiri were strangers. Barakzai had settled in the U.S. in 2017, attending Fairfax County Public Schools for several years. Basiri arrived from Afghanistan in early 2020, just as the pandemic began to unfold across the U.S.
The two girls knew of each other and shared a few classes, but their interactions were limited until the start of their sophomore year, as thousands of refugees fled Afghanistan and, in some cases, resettled in Northern Virginia.
“It was really shocking for me to see how just everything changed in a couple of days and seeing the families evacuating and coming to different countries, to the U.S. especially,” Basiri told FFXnow. “It was not a good memory for me. I just remember [the Taliban]… shutting down the schools and… everyone just trying to save their families and just leaving the country. It was really hard.”
Both Barakzai and Basiri had friends and family affected by the situation in Afghanistan. Barakzai says her uncles, grandmother, and cousins had to flee due to their connections with the previous American-appointed government. Although none of Basiri’s immediate family left, her family provided shelter for several friends who did.
“If they were to stay there, their lives might be in danger,” Barakzai said. “So, that was a very strong persuasion for them to leave everything behind. Everything they worked for so many years for to come [to the U.S.].”
Barakzai commended U.S. agencies and resettlement organizations for their role in coordinating the resettlement of Afghan refugees across the country. According to the Migration Policy Institute, approximately 76,000 Afghan refugees came to the U.S. in 2021.
Many of those refugees resettled in Virginia, particularly in Northern Virginia. While there isn’t an exact estimate of how many Afghan refugees remain, federal agencies initially estimated that over 10,000 refugees would be resettled in the state in 2022.
FCPS couldn’t provide an exact count of how many Afghan refugees are currently students, but according to its Office of Communications, an estimated 265 refugees enrolled between August and December 2021.
During the early months of the resettlement, most refugees in the U.S. temporarily lived on military bases, including Marine Corps Base Quantico in Prince William County.
During this period, Barakzai says her uncle devoted much of his time to translating, connecting with counselors, and finding sponsors for refugees. His dedication inspired her to assist her peers in similar ways.
“Always my uncle is there, helping them, and through him…I got to learn about [refugees’] perspectives, especially through my family perspective and through the perspective of the stories my uncle would tell of how everybody went through some way of difficult hardship,” she said.
A diverse community comes together
Although Barakzai and Basiri were not refugees, they understand the challenges of arriving in a new country and navigating unfamiliar systems and norms. Seeing reflections of their younger selves in these students, they wanted to spare them the same emotional hardships they faced upon immigrating.
“So, we created the Dunya Club, where we can bring all the students together who share the same experience, went through the same hardship, to feel like there’s a lot of them here and they are not alone especially,” Barakzai said. “It’s a very important feeling to have that you’re not alone.”
In addition to giving students a safe space to share their experiences, the club also functioned as an academic support center, assisting refugees who spoke English as a second language in keeping up with their assignments and communicating effectively with teachers.
“We would attend their counselor meetings, talking with their counselors and translating for them, so they can create a good schedule for themselves based on their pursuits,” Basiri said. “We even discussed options like a standard diploma, Advanced [Studies] Diploma, or [International Baccalaureate Diploma program] with them, so they know the school offers opportunities to pursue knowledge and enhance their understanding.”
Barakzai and Basiri also led the creation of presentations for faculty and staff to raise awareness about cultural differences among students, such as co-ed classroom dynamics and dietary restrictions.
“The education school system is very different in Afghanistan compared to here, where girls go to one school, boys go to one school, and now, since they’re coming here, you need to share a classroom with the opposite gender,” Barakzai said. “So we suggested just the seating situation could be adjusted…and be patient with them, especially the language barrier was a big issue.”
Hedrick says the club received $1,500 from the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia to fund field trips, class parties, and college visits. She also noted that virtually every Afghan refugee student who transferred to Annandale High in 2021 has graduated.
Most have or are pursuing post-secondary education, including Barakzai and Basiri, who plan to attend George Washington University this fall.
“I think it really does show the commitment of Annandale High School to educate all learners,” she said.
After leading the club for its first year, Barakzai and Basiri intentionally stepped down during their junior year to promote new leadership and ensure the club would continue after their graduation. This past spring, the club elected a board of five students to lead the club starting next year.
Since its founding, the club has grown from six students to 30 members of all different backgrounds, including students from Pakistan, India, and Central America, according to Barakzai. She and Basiri plan to stay connected and continue offering guidance once they start college.
Looking to the future, they hope the club will continue supporting students in need.
“It will always be open for the students to have a peer help, for any future students coming into school or need help with anything they want,” Barakzai said.
