Afghan journalist and social worker rebuilds her dream in the U.S.
Back in Afghanistan, Marjila wasn’t just a journalist — she was a collector of dreams. She spent four years volunteering with homeless, orphaned children in Kabul. While helping them with necessities like food, clothes, and schooling, she began to ask, “What do you dream of?”
“Most kids, they had big dreams,” she says. “They dreamed to come to the United States, to study, to become footballers, to become artists.”
And while she couldn’t transform the kids into famous football players, she wanted to help the smaller ones come true. With nearly 400 dreams in hand, she compiled all the required documents to start her own non-governmental organization, “Smile for Afghan Kids.”
When everything fell apart
On the day Marjila planned to submit the paperwork, Kabul fell to the Taliban, and with it, her hopes for the NGO. Everything she’d worked for felt like it was crumbling. She spent four months in hiding.
“During those four months, I just visited the orphans one time — I was scared,” she says.
As a journalism trainer with Supporting Open Media in Afghanistan (SOMA), Marjila became a target for the Taliban. When the chance to escape came, she made the painful decision to leave her home behind.
“It was not an easy decision for me. I was not scared of the Taliban, but in the end, they would kill me, and they would make problems for my family and my friends,” Marjila says. “I left all my family, friends, my kids — I call them my kids.”
A new beginning in America
With a degree in journalism and communications from Kabul University, Marjila spent five years working as a social worker and journalist in Afghanistan. But by the time she resettled in Washington, D.C. in February of 2022, her own dreams, let alone the orphans’, felt deeply out of reach.
“It wasn’t easy at all coming to the United States,” she remembers. “In my mind, it’s a land of opportunities, but when you first come here, you have a lot of pressure. You’re lost, you’re nowhere, and you don’t have any family members here to guide you, to show you the way.”
While being held at a U.S. military base, she volunteered to conduct cultural orientations for other Afghan women and their families. There, friends she volunteered with introduced her to Upwardly Global. She applied as soon as she could.
“I was alone at home, and I had no job, nothing,” she says, remembering that cold winter. Ultimately, Marjila began working part-time as a cashier at Ross Dress For Less to make ends meet.
Finding hope through Upwardly Global
By spring, she matched with an Upwardly Global job coach, Shoaib, who was also from Afghanistan. He inspired her to begin reaching for her dreams once again.
“Upwardly Global provided me with a job course, helped me update my resume, and I found a mentor,” she says. “I was working closely with [my Upwardly Global job coach] to find a good job.”
Shoaib helped her land an internship at Lutheran Social Services, which provided resettlement services to other incoming refugees. Soon after, her people skills landed her multiple promotions — from Employment Coordinator to Case Manager, and most recently, to Resettlement Program Manager.
“Coming from your hometown to a new country, new area, new people — I’m sure that any refugee with any level of experience, even without any language barrier, would have their difficulties getting a job,” says Marjila. “You may get stressed, you may feel alone, but don’t lose hope.”
Rebuilding dreams
Her own journey inspired her to support other refugees, just as Upwardly Global supported her.
“Upwardly Global was the best thing that could’ve happened to me,” she says. “With it, I knew my pathway clearly. Without it, I was lost — I didn’t know where I should start. So, it helped a lot.”
Now, with a renewed sense of purpose and stability, Marjila keeps the dreams of Kabul’s children alive in her heart, even from thousands of miles away. And in her new career, she helps others build new dreams, just as she rebuilds her own.