The Creators of N.C

Welcome Home

How Amarra Ghani became a guiding light for those in need

By Wiley Cash Photogr a Phs By M allory Cash Amarra Ghani

has continually found herself in two roles that are surprisingly in concert with one another: caregiver and outsider. These two roles go hand-in-hand more than one would think. Often, outsiders come from a perspective that allows them to assess the needs of others with fresh eyes, and caregivers tend to take on singular roles that set them apart.

“I’ve always felt dif ferent,” Ghani, the founder of Welcome Home in Charlotte, says. “T he color of my sk in, my name.” Af ter 9/11, these feelings intensified for Ghani, a practicing Muslim whose parents are Pak istani immigrants. “I felt super-ostracized,” she says, despite growing up in ethnically and culturally diverse cities in New York and New Jersey. “People would say hur tf ul things to me because of what I looked like or how I grew up.” Ghani ’s feelings of being an outsider intensified when her family moved to Charlotte half way through her senior year of high school. Feeling alone, Ghani, who was not raised in a religious family, began to lean on her faith. “I was isolated f rom ever yone,” she says. “I fell in love with Islam because it was comfor ting for me. I was praying more. I was reading the Koran and I felt like God was my only f riend.” A f ter high school, Ghani at tended communit y college in Charlot te before transfer r ing to the Universit y of Nor th CarolinaA shev ille, where she founded the Muslim St udent A ssociation in hopes that other practicing Muslims would not feel as a lone as she once had. “T hat’s where I found my voice,” she says. A f ter college, she moved to Washing ton, D.C., to work for the U.S. Depar tment of Ag r icult ure, and later as a production assistant at NPR . Ghani was liv ing out her career dreams, but was ca lled home to Charlot te in 2016 af ter her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She became her mother’s caregiver.

She didn’t stop there.

W hile throwing a “f riendsgiving” celebration that year, Ghani encouraged her f riends to bring warm winter clothes that she could donate to people in need. She learned that a f riend ’s mother — a native of Afghanistan who’d been living in Charlotte for 40 years — was gathering clothes for local ref ugees. W hen Ghani took her f riendsgiving haul to the woman’s house, she asked her what else local ref ugees needed. She was surprised to learn that most of them needed the basic necessities like utensils, towels and bedding. She told her that she would put out a call on social media, which she had reg ularly used to make connections during her work in D.C. T he response was

over whelming; soon, her parents’ garage was f ull of donated materials, f rom used clothing to brand new items to gif t cer tificates. “Once I star ted, it just kept growing,” she says. W hen the pool of donors and volunteers swelled f rom 30 people to over 250, Ghani realized that she needed a better platform, so she set up a W hatsApp group called “Welcome Home.” T his seemed like an appropriate name for a group dedicated to welcoming ref ugees as they bridge the gap bet ween the str uggles in their old lives and the challenges of the new.

W hile work ing f ull-time with Wells Fargo, Ghani set about turning Welcome Home into a f unctioning organization, complete with a board of directors. Once things became official, the first phase of the organization’s work was to meet the basic needs of the ref ugee communit y by f urnishing apar tments, for example, or tak ing people on grocer y store visits and other errands where assistance was needed. T he second phase of operations focused on sustainabilit y, and the organization forged ahead with programs in English lang uage education and ser vices that pair ref ugees with translators who can accompany them on doctor visits and other appointments where lang uage may be a barrier.

Ghani knows these dif ficulties firsthand. “English is my second lang uage because my parents would not talk to me in English,” she says. “As the child of immigrants, there’s a time when you become your parents’ parent. I was 11 when I star ted helping my dad with forms or going to the doctor with them or going to parent-teacher conferences to translate.” W hat a dif ference an organization like Welcome Home would have made in the life of her family: “I wish someone had g uided my parents,” she says. “My dad could ’ve had less pressure on him.” And how were they to know such resources existed? “W hen you’re someone who doesn’t speak the lang uage and you’ve just arrived and don’t know the communit y around you, you need someone to g uide you. T hat is what drives me.”

Welcome Home star ted out with 21 families, and they all eventually graduated f rom the program, no longer in need of assistance. “We have families who come here and who don’t know English or how to drive and perhaps have a four th grade education,” Ghani says. Not only are they learning how to sur vive in a world that feels so foreign, she continues, but they are learning how to thrive. “We have three families who have been able to purchase houses in the last year,” she says. T hey were able to raise money to cover the rent for another family where the wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. “Earlier this year, we learned that this family was able to buy a house as well.”

But Ghani a lso recog nizes the hesitanc y many people have about seek ing help, which is why Welcome Home plays such an impor tant role in the lives of ref ugees f rom places like Sy r ia, A fghanistan and Myanmar. W hile many ref ugee organizations are missionar y in nat ure, Welcome Home is not. Still, Ghani cannot deny the comfor t families find in work ing w ith an organization largely compr ised of people who share the ref ugees’ relig ious faith, cult ure and worldv iew. “It makes a dif ference in sma ll ways and big ways,” she says. “For example, dur ing T hank sg iv ing, our families k now that we can prov ide Ha la l t urkeys. T hat establishes a level of tr ust.” Now, perhaps more than ever, tr ust is paramount as ref ugees set tle into a new communit y dur ing the coronav ir us pandemic. As the vir us takes its toll in communities across the state, Welcome Home finds itself back in their first phase, meeting the basic needs of their families. “It’s all about necessities and f undraising to cover bills,” Ghani says. It’s also about keeping families safe f rom the vir us itself. In mid-Febr uar y, Welcome Home par tnered with the cit y of Charlotte and the Meck lenburg Depar tment of Health Ser vices to provide vaccinations. “T hey reached out to us because of the skepticism of the vaccine in ref ugee and immigrant communities. We’re bridging that gap and bringing familiarit y to the process of getting vaccinated,” Ghani says. T hrough it all, Ghani, who last month was awarded UNC -Asheville’s Francine Delany Award for Ser vice to the Communit y, maintains that she is driven by her faith, as well as by the memories she has of being an outsider and her most recent calling to care for those in need. “W hat did I do to deser ve the life that I have?” she asks. “Nothing. I was just born into this family and this faith and this atmosphere. Others aren’t so luck y.” W hen she works with ref ugee families, assisting them with ever ything f rom getting clothes to learning English, she can’t help seeing a bit of herself in their str uggle. “I know where they’re coming f rom,” she says, “I’ve been in that place.” No matter the place where members of Charlotte’s ref ugee communit y find themselves, Amarra Ghani wants to make cer tain they get home. OH

Wil e y Ca sh is th e w r it er-in - re si d en ce at th e Universit y of Nor th Caro lin a -A sh ev ill e. His n ew n o vel, W hen Ghost s C ome Home, w ill be rel e a se d this y e ar.