UNO Employee, Afghan Refugee Helped by Education Seeks Opportunities for Others

When Hanif Sufizada was a child his home country of Afghanistan was embroiled in a much different war than many would be familiar with today.

In the 1980s, Sufizada and his family became refugees – fleeing to neighboring Pakistan to avoid being injured or killed during the Soviet Union’s invasion. It was here, as he was attending an elementary school located in a refugee camp, that he first learned about the University of Nebraska at Omaha from his uncle – who had traveled to UNO for a post-graduate degree in public administration and reconstruction development that was being offered by the Center for Afghanistan Studies at the time.

“I remember, at the time, one of my uncles came to UNO and he was always talking about UNO, Nebraska and Omaha and I would say ‘what are these words?’,” he explains. “My uncle is still in Afghanistan and he has quite good memories of Omaha.”

Today, Sufizada is a UNO employee with the very same Center for Afghanistan Studies, overseeing educational outreach and partnerships with universities in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with a goal of creating similar partnerships across the entire Central and South Asia region.

“It is quite important to have these public-to-public relations,” he explains. “In this endeavor, I think UNO has always played a key role.”

More Than Forty Years of Ties to Afghanistan

From Street Vendor to Scholar

A Return to Refugee Life and a New Beginning

More Than Forty Years of Ties to Afghanistan

In 1972, long before both the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the conflicts resulting from the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a UNO professor named Christian Jung launched UNO’s Center for Afghanistan Studies as the world’s sole program studying and researching the then-peaceful Middle Eastern country.

Two years later, Thomas Gouttierre, who was a Peace Corps volunteer and head of the country’s Fulbright program, came to Omaha and UNO to serve as the center’s director and Dean of International Studies and Programs. It is a position he would hold for more than 40 years, making him (and UNO) the go-to source for insight into the country. Gouttierre retired in 2015, becoming dean emeritus; today, Sher Jan Ahmadzai serves as center director.

In the decades the center has existed, it has not only provided informational resources for scholars and government leaders, but has also led the country in educational outreach. In one of their longest-running programs, the Center has provided skills training to more than 8,500 Afghanistan teachers since 1992. Additionally, the Center has had a decades-long relationship with Kabul University, providing student and faculty exchanges like one launched in 2010 to upgrade the university’s journalism program.

As head of educational partnerships for the Center, Sufizada is tasked with not only keeping these partnerships strong, but building important new ones. It is a mission rooted in his own educational experiences and opportunities.

From Street Vendor to Scholar

During the 1980s and 1990s, as a student in Pakistan, Sufizada’s educational experience was much different than one Americans would be accustomed to.

Not only did Sufizada have to walk nearly 45 minutes to school each day, but his courses focused far more on religious teachings and fear than math and science. In fact, he dropped out of school several times, but always found his way back at the urging of this father.

“My father would encourage me. He would say ‘I know all of the problems we have, but please continue.’”

College was never on the radar for Sufizada. Not only were the costs prohibitive for his family, but he wanted to give back to support his family financially. In order to do that, he worked as a street vendor, selling soaps, shampoos, fruits and vegetables for a meager profit.

While he worked as a vendor, Sufizada was also learning English as a second language. Soon, he began working in Pakistan as a legal assistant, providing legal and language assistance to other refugees who were seeking to repatriate as they fled from persecution by the Taliban, both prior to and following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. He also joined the United States, helping develop materials in support of the country’s first democratic elections in 2004 and then in Liberia the following year.

“It was a good experience, to see how developing countries were bringing in democracy and how to encourage people to exercise their democratic rights,” he says. “At the time I was a volunteer, I didn’t have any formal college education, so it gave me the confidence to say there is a lot to learn and I need to go back to school to do it.”

A Return to Refugee Life and a New Beginning

After just two and a half years serving as an advisor to Afghanistan's Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, Sufizada was once again forced to leave his home country following threats on his life given his very public role.