At a table dressed in blue and gold with the words “Stand With Ukraine” emblazoned on it, Elizabeth Sierova shows off Montanka, a traditional Ukrainian doll, to guests attending a World Refugee Day celebration in Reno last month.
Sierova is from Kyiv, but fled the city with her two daughters when Russia invaded Ukraine last year. Along with local Ukrainians — longtime residents and new refugees alike — she made the dolls to sell for donations to benefit various humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine.
“I’m here in Reno. It’s not easy but we are brave, we are united, and like I have in my T-shirt, незламаний, we are unbroken,” Sierova said in front of a crowd of cheering supporters.
The celebration was hosted by the Northern Nevada International Center (NNIC), which partners with the State Department to help refugees resettle in the area, provides translation services and facilitates international exchanges. Since 2016, they have resettled more than 500 people from countries such as Afghanistan, Ukraine, Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, and El Salvador.
“There are now more than 100 million individuals who have been displaced across the globe, enduring complex and frustrating journeys to find brand new lifestyles and communities,” said Carina Black, executive director of NNIC, in a release prior to the event. “We endeavor to demonstrate to our refugee clients that northern Nevadans, being battle born, are just as tenacious and determined.”
Sierova has family in Ukraine and said her heart is still there with them. But for now, she is happy to help support Ukraine from Reno.
While Sierova said she hopes to return to Ukraine as soon as possible, another refugee NNIC helped relocate, Zakaria Mustafa, has made Reno his permanent home. When he got his citizenship last year, he thought about relocating to another state but realized he would miss the community he has here.
“Right now, my whole life is here,” said Mustafa.
Mustafa is from north of Aleppo in Syria near the Turkish border. After weathering two years of civil war, he fled with his wife and young son to Turkey in 2013, where he lived as a refugee for three years. He worked in video production before the war but as a refugee wasn’t able to work, until he came to Reno in 2016.
He was the first refugee from Syria to be relocated to Northern Nevada as NNIC was just getting its resettlement program started. Although he struggled with English, he was able to start working at the Patagonia warehouse just over two months after his arrival.
Over the years, as more refugees arrived from Syria, Mustafa started coordinating large shopping trips to Sacramento to buy halal food (products that conform to Islamic dietary restrictions) that he had trouble finding in Reno. While some of the orders would be hundreds of dollars, he never charged fees more than the cost of the groceries.
“This is for helping. It’s free,” said Mustafa. “This is for friends [and] family [to] help.”
Earlier this year, Mustafa was awarded a commendation by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s (D-NV) office for his volunteer efforts within the community.
Last month, in a strip mall in South Reno, Mustafa took what he learned buying groceries in bulk for almost nine years and opened a Middle Eastern market named after his hometown, Afrin. He joins the roughly 13 percent of refugees who become entrepreneurs, while only 9 percent of the U.S.-born population makes that leap, according to the American Immigration Council.
Because his English is still not 100 percent, friends helped him with some of the more complicated paperwork. In the four months it took to get everything ready, he said many of the Syrian families he helped when they first arrived in the U.S. have shown up to do everything from painting the walls to stocking the products.
Mustafa still works at Patagonia full time, so his wife and kids help watch the store on weekdays. He said while he doesn’t make money every day, his goal is to keep his prices as close to those in Sacramento as possible and take things one step at a time.
“Why I opened this business? To help the community,” he said.
