A small new nonprofit organization hopes to help the tens of thousands of Afghans who live in Virginia find employment, build stronger connections with one another, and celebrate their culture.
Volunteers gathered at the United Christian Parish in Reston on Saturday (March 21) to celebrate the opening of the Afghanistan Refugee Rescue Organization’s new U.S. branch there.
Originally formed in Brazil to help Afghan refugees find safe, legal pathways to rebuild their lives there, ARRO will now also help Virginia and Maryland’s existing population find and share resources with one another.
“We do not have any formal stuff that we need to be paid, but we have about 20 volunteers,” Bilal Ahmad Niazi, ARRO’s U.S. president, said in an interview. “We’re all working together.”
ARRO is planning a new initiative to help Afghan women connect with one another and access professional opportunities. Additionally, it will host cultural events and continue to advocate for the Afghan people.
Doubling as a celebration of the end of Ramadan and Nowrus, the Afghan new year, the launch event on Saturday included messages of support from local elected officials, including Walter Alcorn, who represents Hunter Mill District on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.
“What I really want to get across today is how glad I am that you are here,” Alcorn said in a brief speech. “How glad I am that [United Christian Parish] helped get this organization going — and also that diversity, equity and inclusion are a part of our DNA here in Reston and in Fairfax County more broadly.”
Rep. James Walkinshaw, who represents Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, also sent an aide to attend the event with a message of support.
“At a time when many Afghan families are rebuilding their lives in Northern Virginia and across the country, your work stands as a powerful example of compassion in action, helping new Americans find stability, opportunity, and a sense of belonging in their new communities,” Walkinshaw’s message read.
Virginia is home to 14% of the nation’s total Afghan population; Alexandria alone has nearly 2,000 residents, according to an analysis of government data by the research company Neilsberg.
Locally, many entered the country using special immigrant visas granted to interpreters and others who put their lives in danger to assist the United States before it withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021. President Donald Trump suspended the program in November.
Iqbal Najimi, a former Afghan government diplomat and an ARRO member, noted in a speech that some Afghans also immigrated to Fairfax County in the 1980s and ’90s after the fall of the Soviet Union.
“They were called freedom fighters,” he said. Meanwhile, people in the current wave of immigration “were called allies.”
“When the Afghan government collapsed, a number of veterans … rushed to come close to Afghanistan and evacuate their friends,” Najimi said. “They work with those people … They have built bonds … They couldn’t leave them behind.”
“It’s just a reminder,” he concluded, “that Afghans have sacrificed a lot, and they deserve to live in prosperity and security.”
