Book of Dreams: Sacramento driving permit classes foster self-sufficiency for immigrants

Since arriving here from Afghanistan three years ago, Salma Haidary, 26, has relied on her husband to drive her and her children wherever they need to go. Without a license, she can’t drive on her own to look for work and has to walk to the store no matter the weather.

“I want to get a job. I want to be working myself. I want to be helping my husband,” Haidary said.

She’s made strides toward that goal since finding Immigrant Integration & Empowerment, an organization founded last year to serve newly arrived immigrant families in the Sacramento area. It holds weekly classes for Haidary and others covering the California Department of Motor Vehicles handbook for driver’s permits.

Haidary wants to open an at-home child care center, after she studies child care at a college and learns to read and write in English.

Because most attendees do not speak English and often aren’t able to read or write in their native language, the classes cover the material in Dari. Among the lessons: understanding what different signs mean and what to do if an ambulance comes behind you.

The course, which has been taught four times before, is often taken several times by students before they feel prepared for their license tests. Instructor Marvah Shakib said that she has so far worked with 67 immigrants, 10 of whom have passed their driving tests.

Molly Milazzo, a board member of the organization, said many immigrants, especially women, have barriers to learning how to drive beyond the language challenge.

“They start out with a lot of headwinds. There’s not only the fact that a lot of newly arrived women from Afghanistan never learned to drive for numerous reasons, political, social, cultural, in their home country, but there’s also a lack of exposure,” Milazzo said.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the weekly driving permit classes have been held over Zoom, led by Shakib, who is also an immigrant from Afghanistan. Few of the students have laptops or computers, so most have relied on using phones, which prevents them from fully interacting with the virtual course.

Other families involved in the II&E’s other services that support their transition into the Sacramento community don’t have access to any technology that will allow them to attend a class.

Haidary, for example, has missed the last two weeks of her driving permit classes due to a broken phone. With no laptop to connect to a Zoom course, she has fallen behind in her progress toward getting a driver’s license.

Milazzo is hoping that Book of Dreams readers can help to bridge the technology gap facing immigrants in Sacramento. The organization is aiming to raise about $6,500 to buy 25 new laptops for newly-arrived Afghan woman to attend the virtual driving permit classes.

Shakib, who volunteers her time to teach the class, believes the new technology could make a big difference in allowing more immigrants to learn to drive, a necessity for finding jobs and transporting family in the capital region. The organization, led completely by volunteers, mostly from Afghanistan, is trying to bridge the gap between newly-arrived families and their new Sacramento communities.

The board members and workers within Immigrant Integration & Empowerment lean on their own experiences when pursuing the group’s mission.

“I used to teach child development to moms and that is when I learned that when the women at home cannot drive, cannot help their husbands with the responsibilities, it puts a lot of pressure on the husband and it creates a lot of family problems between the wife and husband. One of the factors is not being self-sufficient,” Shakib said.

While many of the students in Shakib’s classes are women, immigrant men also come to the Zoom meeting to learn about the roadways. Mohammad Yousuf Yaqubi, 43, a father in Sacramento, has been going to the classes for a couple of months after he failed the permit test at the DMV twice.

Yaqubi, who cannot read or write in English or Dari, has been desperate to learn how to drive to be able to bring himself and his children to school and doctor’s appointments. He relies on family, friends and neighbors to drive him when they can, but whenever they are busy, he doesn’t have any way of getting places. Yaqubi now works for Apple and hopes, once he’s driving, to get there on his own.

With a car being so necessary for his children and for holding a job, Yaqubi was overjoyed to find the class offered by II&E.

“I didn’t know what to do because I needed to learn all of the driving laws in order to pass the test,” he said. “So, I am grateful that I have this opportunity to just learn. This class has given me courage and I have more confidence after learning the material in class that I can pass the test.”

Haidary, like Yaqubi, is impressed with what she has learned in the class, which she hopes to get back to soon. With a broken phone, however, and no laptop, technology is preventing her from attending.

“If I had my own money, I would go buy a laptop, but we would be really grateful to all who could help,” Haidary said.

This story was originally published December 6, 2020 at 5:00 AM.