INDIANAPOLIS — Over the last month, thousands of refugees from Afghanistan have been brought to the United States.
Many of them are at Camp Atterbury which is located west of Edinburgh. In the coming weeks and months, those refugees will start to find permanent homes. Some could choose to settle in cities across our area.
Adekemi Soyebo-Sofola, originally from Nigeria, understands the challenges many of them will face. She fled her home country of Nigeria.
"It was so tough. It was tough back there in Nigeria for me and the kids," Soyebo-Sofola said.
She has three sons and before January 2017, a husband. Soyebo-Sofola says her husband was killed because of politics. He was a politician who was assassinated in his home.
"It felt like a joke. All the doors were locked and closed, but they were able to get inside," she said. "They just locked my kids in their room and told me that I should face down. That's all before they shot him. He was shot dead."
Those who killed her husband thought Soyebo-Sofola was going to try and replace him. She soon started feeling threatened.
"I was coming from a grocery store to buy some things and they attack me," Soyebo-Sofola said. "They got me to stop my car because some man jumped out in front of me. Once I stopped, they pulled me out and started beating me."
That attack left her scarred emotionally and physically. That's when she decided to make her move to get out of Nigeria.
Although from different parts of the world, Soyebo-Sofola understands how those in Camp Atterbury are feeling. Many of them fled Afghanistan because they were afraid the Taliban would go back to their hard-line tactics: killing, hurting, and oppressing those under their power.
The Salvation Army is helping those at Camp Atterbury just like they've done for so many including Soyebo-Sofola. She tells WRTV, they've helped her pay rent on many occasions which has been a blessing to her and her boys.
"I was just so amazed that they would help me like that," she said.
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Soyebo-Sofola shares her story, wanting to give others hope who might be in a similar situation.
"I do this willingly because I'm always happy when I see my current situation now compared to how it was," she said.
Soyebo-Sofola is waiting to find out if her asylum has been approved.
Asylum-seekers, according to Amnesty International, are those who are seeking protection from persecution in another country. In some cases, They've already entered the United States but have not been legally recognized as a refugee. Afghans who left the country during the US Military withdrawal have been formally recognized as refugees.
