One of Sacramento’s newest residents fights COVID-19 again after Afghanistan move

Shams arrived in Sacramento in October after serving on the front lines of the COVID-19 battle as a medical provider in Kabul, Afghanistan. A pharmacist by training and interpreter for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, he fled his home country after facing daily death threats against himself and his family.

In Sacramento, Shams is pursuing a career in the medical field and advocating for members of his community who, like him, fear for their safety. Shams is his nickname; he wishes not to have his full name used because he fears for his safety.

COVID-19 reached Kabul in March last year. “The doctors didn’t want to die,” Shams said. “We had no medical equipment. No ventilators, hardly any masks for the doctors. They were dying. Many were afraid, and so they quit.”

Shams stepped in when his close friend, who ran the hospital, requested his assistance. Although Shams didn’t need the money — at the time, he ran his own pharmacy in addition to his career as an officer in the military — he stepped up, providing essential medical support.

“What trained me to be brave was becoming a soldier. As a soldier, you love your people. You bleed for your country,” he said. His experience in the military gave him the “strong mind” that he said made the difference in responding to the pandemic.

Today, Shams’ family of four lives in their small Sacramento apartment. “Really all we have is each other,” Shams said.

His daughter sat on his lap during an interview with a reporter. Only 3 years old, she proudly exclaimed the name of their new home: “Sacramento!” She is learning English alongside her older brother, 7, who attends online school. Meanwhile, their mother is studying for her driver’s license.

Studying to build a life in Sacramento

Learning remains critically important to Shams. With the assistance of the International Rescue Committee in Sacramento, Shams is studying to become a certified medical assistant.

“By supporting Shams through his medical training, IRC’s Career Pathway Program can address high needs in qualified healthcare professionals brought by this pandemic,” said Yana Mann, a career development specialist at IRC.

Mann said the IRC responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster. They help people survive, recover and gain control of their future in more than 40 countries.

“A career pathways program is one of the central components to successful refugee resettlement,” Mann said. “We provide comprehensive career development services to clients that include technical training and job placement support in a variety of sectors such as the medical field, civil engineering, transportation and more.”

In Sacramento, IRC assists both refugees and special immigrant visa holders like Shams — who worked for U.S. armed forces abroad for more than two years — to get back into their professional fields.

Shams recently won the prestigious Grove Scholarship, a competitive award founded by former Intel CEO Andrew Grove, who fled from Hungary as a refugee to the United States.

The scholarship provides support to highly qualified refugees and immigrants like Shams to earn accreditation in their professional fields in the United States.

“I don’t care about the money,” Shams said. “The money will come. I care about learning as much as I can. I care about improving myself to serve my community.

“I don’t want to be on food stamps. I want to work, to earn money.”

In order to put food on the table, he picked up a job at a gas station only two weeks after arriving in Sacramento. But his expertise, he says, is wasted there.

His certificate in pharmacology, earned with honors in Afghanistan, does not certify him to practice in the United States.

Life in Kabul

Shams entered the military at the age of 20. A fluent English speaker and skilled translator in Dari, Urdu, Pashto and English, Shams stood out for his diplomatic skills and rose quickly up the ranks to become an officer.

As an officer in Kabul, Shams attended a university and opened his own pharmacy. Shams, as both a pharmacist and military officer, became well-respected in the city. One day, a woman came to his pharmacy who would change his life.

“I told my mother that I wanted to marry that girl,” Shams said with a smile. He didn’t tell his father at first, who wished for a traditional arranged marriage for his son. “I broke all the rules,” Shams laughed. Unlike Shams, who came from a village, she was from the city. His father feared she would not understand their culture. Nonetheless, love won out.

Only a few years later, terrorist organizations gained power throughout Afghanistan. Shams and his young family began experiencing threats.

“If you have contact with Americans, non-Muslim countries, or have an open mind, they target you,” he said.

The threats intensified when terrorists visited his father’s home in the village, threatening to kill Shams’ entire extended family. At the time, Shams lived and worked in Kabul.

He sent his father photos from his pharmacy and from the hospital, instructing him to tell the terrorists that Shams was only doing medical work.

“I stopped going to the village. I stopped seeing my family. It was too dangerous.”

He applied for a visa to leave Afghanistan in 2014, but it took nearly six years to get out.

In the meantime, Shams continued in his duties as a military officer; in addition, he worked long shifts at the hospital.

One evening last year, after a 14-hour shift at the hospital in which Shams lost five patients to COVID-19, the terrorists called. “‘If you don’t pay the money, I’ll kidnap your son,’” Shams recalled. “I made a mistake: I told them, ‘Do what you want with me, but don’t threaten my family.’ Then they kept calling, every time saying they would kill my children.”

Tipping point

It proved a tipping point for Shams, who went directly to the chief on his military base to plead his circumstances. Understanding the situation, his chief petitioned the U.S. Embassy to relocate Shams and his family as soon as possible. After six years of waiting, Shams received a call from the embassy: They would leave in three days.

“We left everything there. We came with only the clothes on our backs,” he said.

Even today, only Shams’ father and brother know he is in the United States. “If the people who threatened me learned I was in America, they would kill my brother and my family,” he said.

Shams’ brother also works as a translator for the U.S. Special Operations in Afghanistan. Although his brother is in the process of receiving a special immigrant visa, Shams worries for his safety.

By taking his story public, Shams hopes to help other people who work for the U.S. military, whom he says need to be resettled as soon as possible.

In the U.S., Shams faces a different kind of danger on a daily basis. As an essential worker, Shams faces a daily battle against COVID-19. Just weeks ago, several of his coworkers tested positive.

“I was telling people, we have to wear masks,” he said. “My coworkers were not taking it seriously.” Then, one of them caught the illness. “That’s when they realized COVID-19 is real.”

Shams encountered similar attitudes towards COVID-19 in Afghanistan. There, Shams shared videos of his work in the hospital so people would believe what was happening.

He misses being on the front lines of the medical fight against the disease. Shams dreams of returning to his country as a doctor. In the meantime, he said, “I just try all the time to be helping people.”

This story was originally published February 9, 2021 at 10:45 AM.