News

“Life in New Home”

“Life in New Home” is a series of stories of refuges in Kyrgyzstan who strive to make a normal living. Each story is shared from a different perspective but with hopes to belong.

This is a story[1] of a four-year-old boy whose family is from Afghanistan.

“My Grandfather is my hero”

My name is Habib and my grandfather is Mohamad Hussain. My grandfather was born in 1943 in Afghanistan and in 1977 he came to Kyrgyzstan to be trained as a pilot. After his training, my grandfather returned to Afghanistan where my two uncles and three aunts were born. After the conflict intensified my grandfather and grandmother, and all their children, fled as refugees to Kyrgyzstan in 1991, where they had to begin their lives from scratch. Although my grandfather was familiar with the place he was unable to find employment since he was a refugee. My aunt Zarguna who is now a doctor and my father Asmath were born in this country.

My grandfather struggled at first but he focused on getting his children educated. After a while, our family received Convention refugee status and we were able to get all the rights like Kyrgyz citizens, except for the right to vote. My oldest aunt is a doctor, my other aunt also wanted to be a doctor but since my grandfather could not afford it she had to quit. But did not really quit because she learnt Russian and English very well and now she is a teacher. Both my uncles graduated from university, one with the help of DAFI scholarship from Germany through UNHCR. Although both have university degrees, they can only work in the bazaar because it is difficult to find employment despite having the right to work. My youngest aunt is a lawyer, she studied at the university in absentia due to lack of finance. She had to work more than study in order to be able to pay for her education. All the others have at least high school education. Another aunt of mine lives in Kabul, she is married and I have two cousins there. I have never met my cousins since they were born in Afghanistan.

My grandfather is my hero. He inspires me because he is a hardworking man, determined and ambitious for his family to stay united and do well in Kyrgyzstan. I think maybe one day I would like to train as a pilot like him. He also loves to work in the garden and I love to spend time with him playing and trying to help. We grow a lot of vegetables. During spring and summer our neighbours and friends help us plant our vegetable farm. We also help them in return. I have many friends who are Kyrgyz and my family gets along very well with the people of our village. We also have a small house and a shed for the animals. We have hens, goats and sheep. My grandfather told me that UNHCR gave him some money and he used that money to buy some cows, but had to sell them to cover the expenses of my aunt recovering from cancer. 

I have a little sister, her name is Salika, and she is very beautiful. I want her to grow up to be strong and hard working. I am happy that I have Kyrgyz citizenship because my dad was born here. I wish we can all live as citizens in the country that welcomed us and gave us asylum when we were in trouble. I wish everyone in my family receives citizenship. Life is difficult without citizenship, my uncles and aunts cannot pursue their dreams even though they are educated. I wish to see my family in a better position. Although I don’t completely understand, my grandfather always speaks about breathing his last as a Kyrgyz citizen and not as a refugee.