[Music] hi I'm officer Natasha hansberger from the community engagement office last summer in collaboration with a strategic communication team we launched a video series that provided insights into the communities we serve and may engage with our first video featured a profile of the Afghan Refugee and immigrant Community highlighting key aspects that can assist you in responding more effectively to service calls we are glad to share a brief message from Mr darsh who works at the Afghan support network a local nonprofit that serves and assist newly arrived Afghan Nationals the members of the Afghan support network are eager to engage with ppb they can serve as a valuable resource by assisting as needed in your daily work and assignments related to the Afghan Community here's their Agency contact information [Music] my name is U Dar zil um I am one of the founding member of Afghan support network the Afghan support network is the first culturally specific uh nonprofit organization that Target the needs of Afghans imig refugees and Afghan Americans instead of Oregon we're more than happy to be involved in any way to play that bridge between the community and other um government entities including the police Bureau if we needed to step in it could be basically a phone call or an officer or someone needed or help with clear communication or interpretation um we are available to [Music] support Afghan support network uh was created in a direct response to the collapse of Republic of Afghanistan in 2021 we saw a flow of immigrants and refugees coming to the United State and to our state and there was a need need to provide some cultural Property Services there's still people coming and we you know on a monthly basis we get Afghan here in in the state of Oregon most of these Afghans that they were somehow involved with the US government or previous government but increasing of Afghan refugees the biggest factor is the economic situation of Afghanistan there's no jobs and there are millions of Afghans that they are you know starving they don't have food so I think one thing to keep in mind they don't just come here the they want to they were forced to come here they were hoping for a bright future uh to the country will thrive in you know economically and in many other ways most Afghans when they come here you know they have that trauma leaving behind your whole life there and that takes a little longer time to integrate to the larger Community Afghans are really uh friendly people they would be highly uh delighted to have relationship and see police officers interacting with them they don't have a lot of this negative perspectives to the police but to be more transparent they have the fear the police officer in general in state of Oregon should work more to interact with Afghans by any way they can and kind of to know a little bit about their culture there are a few restaurants or some food cars that they serve with Afghan dishes I think food is something that can really bring people together I think that's where opportunity if you want to learn more you know and those restaurants and stores that they have we have here around the state they run by Afghans you know just to go there and just explore what do they do how it's how it's work you know how they and you would see many Afghans in the stores you know go with uniform and interact with them like that's going to be one of the one of way that they can build a trust there are two languages that's spoken in Afghanistan primarily one is PTO and one is Dari PTO you know there are some dialects but if you have interpreter online they might understand PTO which is common but with du I I've had this experience that they're using a different dialect which is Persian from Iran and most Afghans do not understand that dialect and that leads to a lot of misinterpretation and miscommunication and leads to bigger problem so I would highly recommend that when you're getting a called for the Afghan family if the language is Du or they say farsy to get a an Afghan interpreter or a person that they can speak the DAR dialect that is very important greeting is something that automatically change someone's perspective when you see someone when we say assalam alaykum it says peace be upon you and then automatically you build a bond you build a trust Salam alikum is a is a universal it's not limited to afans it could be any Muslim when you have a stop let's just say you someone stop a woman with the hijab you automatically know that she is a Muslim if you greet her with Salam alaykum I guarantee you she'll be like oh he's a like a friend to me we as a Afghan support network you know with collaboration with other partners are trying our best to make it as a smooth smoth process for all Afghans so we can definitely count on The Afghan support network as a partner we cannot make a difference in the Nationwide but I can definitely say we try here in the state of Oregon to make it a smoother transition for afghans [Music]