After hundreds of Afghan refugees settled in St. Louis over the past year, the International Institute of St. Louis held a grand opening for its most recent initiative on Friday: a community center.
The center, located in an office space at 3611 South Grand Boulevard in Tower Grove South, will offer a wide range of services for Afghan immigrants resettling in St. Louis. It will house the Afghan Chamber of Commerce, which will provide services such as English classes, driver's education for women, financial literacy, credit building and mental-health programs. The center will also supply additional activities for kids, including a youth talent show, sports and arts, says Moji Sidiqi, Afghan Community Development Program Manager for the International Institute.
“[Kids] have been exposed to war for decades on end. Folks are more concerned with survival,” she says. “Now that they're in the United States in a safe space, I’m going to push for the center to advocate for their creativity — for arts, for bands, for music, for writing.”
After over six months of work, the grand opening took place on Friday morning. More than 50 institute employees, Afghan families, business owners, representatives from immigrant organizations and community members crowded into the building on Grand. Throughout the hourlong event, attendees enjoyed Afghan food, toured the office space and listened to multiple speakers, including Sidiqi, attorney Jerry Schlichter and International Institute President and CEO Arrey Obenson.
Over the past year, St. Louis has seen an influx of Afghan refugees –– the largest number of total arrivals in the International Institute's history, according to St. Louis Public Radio. Nearly 700 Afghans have settled into permanent housing in St. Louis since the fall of 2021 when the U.S. withdrew troops and the Taliban took over Afghanistan.
And the influx of new arrivals to the city is not over. More than 220 refugees are expected to arrive from Albania in the coming months. Earlier this week, two International Institute staff members, including Sidiqi, traveled to Albania to speak with refugees about coming to St. Louis.
After Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, the institute launched the Afghan Support Program in January 2022 to accommodate the growing number of Afghan immigrants, providing $500,000 for housing assistance, creating an Afghan newspaper and supplying 200 families with iPads and smartphones. Many have settled in south St. Louis, making Grand an ideal location for the community center.
“It’s in a centralized location, close to the institute, in a neighborhood where the majority of our new arrivals stay,” Sidiqi says. “It couldn’t be more ideal.”
As more Afghan immigrants land in St. Louis, Sidiqi doesn’t want them just to live here. She wants St. Louis to feel like home.
“There’s a big initiative behind the Afghan Support Program and that is to incentivize Afghans to move to St. Louis,” Sidiqi says, “so that we can basically emulate [the] Bosnian migration that took place in the ’90s and make St. Louis the next little Kabul.”
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