GREEN BAY, Wis. — Shah Mohammad Mohammadi remembers the day he left his home country for America.

“That day was very hard for me,” said Mohammadi.

He is one of dozens of Afghan refugees resettled in the Green Bay area with the help of Catholic Charities of the Green Bay Diocese.

“When I came here, I didn’t know about the American people’s culture,” Mohammadi said. “I didn’t know about everything. That was hard for me.”

Mohammadi served as a police commander in the investigative division in Afghanistan. It’s a job he said he misses. He said what hurts most is being away from his family, especially his children; they stayed behind. 

He said over the last year, life has gotten easier in the U.S.

“Right now I’m happy,” Mohammadi said. “I have a friend here, I have a car, I have a house, I have a driver’s license.”

That friend is Mahboobbullah Habib. Habib came to the U.S. eight years ago and worked in Washington state before moving to Fort McCoy to work as an interpreter.

“Honestly, I cried for them because it was not easy,” Habib said.

Habib befriended Mohammadi while helping him at Fort McCoy. He said he’s proud of what his friend has accomplished while settling into life in Wisconsin.

After six months at Fort McCoy, Habib took a job with Catholic Charities in Green Bay. There, he serves as a housing and resource coordinator helping refugees in Brown County.

“We try our best to help these families,” Habib said. “I believe they all can like stand on their feet, they can do all their appointments, they can do all what they need, they can do.”

“Our dream is that we see all these families together. If they’re in Afghanistan, here we rejoin them together again,” Habib added.

Mohammadi said he wants to become fluent in English and become a police officer here one day. He said most importantly, he wants to bring his family to the U.S., a journey Catholic Charities is helping him through.

“I want my family with us here,” Mohammadi said. “I want also [to] help all Afghan people here.”