BENNINGTON — A refugee resettlement agency has opened a community center in Bennington, nearly two years after it began relocating Afghans to the southwestern Vermont town.
The Ethiopian Community Development Council brought the first Afghan refugees to Bennington and Windham counties in January 2022. Since then, the agency said it has resettled 81 men, women and children in the town of Bennington — among hundreds of Afghan refugees who have come to Vermont since 2021.
ECDC designed the community center as an office for their staffers, a place where their clients can hold meetings or do computer work and, generally, as a space that promotes multiculturalism.
Early Thursday afternoon, around 35 people gathered at the council’s community center to celebrate its opening over a rice dish called Uzbek pilaf, Afghan fried pastries and milk tea variations. Some participants chatted around couches in the front room, others in a bigger adjoining room that featured a children’s play area and seats around family-size tables. Sunlight streamed in windows that look out over Union Street.
“Whenever I come here, I feel relaxed,” said Elham Naziri, 24, an Afghan refugee who arrived in Vermont this September. Naziri, who resettled in the United States on his own, said he appreciates that the community center gives him an opportunity to interact with other people.
Naziri works at a downtown Bennington restaurant, continues to improve his English and plans to study information technology at the Community College of Vermont.
Since the autumn of 2021 — following the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 — nearly 500 Afghans have been resettled in Vermont, data from the resettlement agencies show.
ECDC has relocated 278 Afghans to Bennington and Windham counties since January of last year, said the agency’s resettlement program manager, Mark Clark.
Since October 2021, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants resettled another 205 to the Montpelier area and to Rutland and Chittenden counties, according to USCRI-Vermont’s resettlement services manager, Matt Thompson.
Attendees of Thursday’s event in Bennington included members of Bennington County Open Arms, a volunteer organization that has helped Afghan refugees navigate day-to-day life in the U.S. and provided them with English lessons.
Joe Wiah, ECDC’s executive director in Vermont, said the resettlement program in Bennington would not have succeeded without the volunteers. When the first Afghans came to town, he said, the Virginia-based agency did not yet have any staff members in Bennington; they were all working out of the branch office in Brattleboro.
“Any case management you can think about, it was the BCOA team that did it on our behalf,” Wiah said at the event, referring to the volunteer organization.
Among ECDC’s resettlement locations throughout the country, southern Vermont has the smallest number of refugees deciding to leave the area, according to Wiah, who attributed this to the community’s strong support for the resettlement efforts in Bennington and Brattleboro.
The development council is inviting other Bennington-area residents and organizations to use the community center for events that would promote multiculturalism, mutual respect and inclusion, said Jack Rossiter-Munley, ECDC’s community engagement manager. He gave as examples social gatherings and speaker events.
“Talk to us,” Rossiter-Munley said in an interview. “We want to be as much of a resource as possible to as many people as possible.”
The chair of the Bennington Selectboard, Jeannie Jenkins, said the community center’s multicultural thrust is a “gift” to Bennington. “It’s breaking new ground for us, and I think it’s really, really important,” she told event attendees.
Jenkins, a volunteer with Bennington County Open Arms, said the arrival of the Afghans has enriched the local community. She cited the culture that the refugees have brought, the friendships, talents and skills, as well as the food and languages they’ve introduced.
“You’ve already changed this community,” she said. “It is just a real pleasure.”
More Afghans are continuing to arrive in town, and some dropped by the center on Thursday.
Fawzia Haidari, 33, came to Bennington with her husband, Mukhtar Sultani, 32, in November after seven years of living as Afghan refugees in Indonesia.
Last week, Kimya Mohammadyar and her three children also resettled in Bennington, after living for 10 years in New Delhi, where they moved from Afghanistan.
“People here are very nice,” Mohammadyar’s 16-year-old daughter, Shugoofa Jamaluddin, said while gathered around a table at the new center. “More important than the place are the people.”
