Zarlasht Halaimzai

Zarlasht Halaimzai was born in Afghanistan, where there was war all around. Almost every day she would hear a distant thud, which was the sound of a rocket falling. Her family hated the sound of the rockets.Her grandmother would always take them into a room in the back of the house. Zarlasht said that even though it wasn’t much safer, she felt more secure in that room. Because of all the violence in her hometown, Zarlasht and her family decided to leave. When they left, they encountered more violence. The only thing she could ever think about in those days was the uneasy feeling of being unsafe. The feeling overwhelmed her every day, so she became afraid. Zarlasht and her family had moved to a different location, and Zarlasht was terribly worried about her friends and family who were still in Kabul. She would repeat prayers every single night to pray for their safety. She and her family wanted to go back, but when the Taliban took over, they realized that going back was not an option.

Afterwards, Zarlasht and her family moved to the UK to seek out a new life. Zarlasht is now working to help other people overcome the horrors of war and overcome the fear of being expendable. When she tells people about her life, many say that she is remarkable.

Millions of people are trying to live during war, and they’re trying to stay alive. Many people have dreams, including Zarlasht’s family. They didn’t want to buy a perfect house. They just wanted to be safe. They wanted to send the kids to school without the fear of being killed. War makes people scared and afraid. It can be mentally and physically damaging.

Right now, there are 84 million displaced people. UNHCR says that more than half of these people are women and children. Something appalling is the number of people living in the war zones. Millions of children are growing up where violence and war is completely normal. There are millions of Afghans who are forced to leave their homes. Zarlasht is telling us the horrors of war, and that even though life can be scary, we should persevere. That’s why she is now working for an agency to rehabilitate and heal people who experienced the trauma of war.