OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — The chaos in Afghanistan is personal and heartbreaking to Overland Park resident Mariya Goodbrake. Her parents fled Afghanistan in 1981 during the Soviet invasion.
Goodbrake has been receiving constant updates, including videos of the chaos, from her family members still in Afghanistan.
"It's been a whirlwind of shock and grief and just sitting there helpless as the international community is watching one of the greatest stains in American history unfolding right now, and in some ways and I hate to say this, we're watching evil prevail," Goodbrake said.
Goodbrake was born in Iran after her parents fled Afghanistan.
"It's sad to say, but I'm also empowered by the story that I am a product of displacement," Goodbrake said.
After living in India and Canada, Goodbrake moved to Kansas City in 2013. She created a nonprofit called GlobalFC, which serves immigrant and refugee youth in the Kansas City area through sports, education and mentoring.
"These kids from trauma, displacement, heartbreak, all of those things," Goodbrake said. "The positive narrative is that these children are resilient and if can come alongside them and give them the tool kits for success and then unleash them back into Kansas City I think we all benefit."
Goodbrake expects an increase in Afghan refugees to the United States and Kansas City in the coming weeks amid the Taliban takeover. Many of them had been working alongside the United States military as translators or civil workers.
As she watches the events unfold in Afghanistan, her biggest worry is about the progress and advancement for women and young girls over the last twenty years.
"Hope was passed down to these young girls that they can go to school, that they can become something one day, that they can just have the basic human rights and that is right now being stripped away from them," Goodbrake said.
She wants the men and women who served in Afghanistan and those who lost family members to know their sacrifice and work wasn't in vain.
"I think that their presence and their sacrifices stirred the hearts of Afghan people, and they saw a difference, they saw a taste of democracy, and I think that there are going to be Afghans who are going to rise up and fight to hold onto that democracy," Goodbrake said.
She hopes people will understand this isn't the end of the story of Afghanistan.
"Afghanistan has fallen today, but I don't believe that Afghanistan has fallen," Goodbrake said.
