nargis' story
In 2018, Anna Rossi, who was founder and chair of the Alameda Deanery Welcome the Stranger Refugee Resettlement Committee, received an urgent message from an Afghani family that Anna had helped resettle in the Sacramento area a few years earlier. The family was now seeking help for their 6-year-old niece, Nargis, who was still living in Afghanistan.
Born with dysplasia in both hips, Nargis suffered terrible, constant pain but was unable to access the surgery and other medical care she needed in her home country. After a long search, Welcome to the Stranger found a doctor in Riverside, CA willing to perform the pro bono surgery that Nargis’s needed— if the organization could arrange for Nargis and her father to travel to the U.S. on a medical visa.
Tragically, Afghanistan’s internal tensions and the threat of Taliban takeover threw a wrench into the works. For four years, Welcome the Stranger wrote letters to both Democratic and Republican officials asking for assistance in obtaining the crucial visas, but without success. In the meantime, Nargis grew older and her physical ailment worsened. She had never been able to run and play with other children, and now the pain was intense even while lying down. Anna never forgot about Nargis and worried about her, frustrated by the political and bureaucratic forces that kept Welcome the Stranger from providing support.
Things began looking up one day in 2023, when a pastor at Presbyterian Church in Alameda, CA introduced Anna to a pediatric surgeon in Pakistan. If the organization could get Nargis and her family to Pakistan, she learned, this doctor would perform the three surgeries that Nargis now needed for free — and would oversee the six months of physical therapy that would follow.
A new plan emerged: Welcome the Stranger would obtain visas for Nargis, her parents and youngest sister, provide financial support for transportation and the families living expenses for their six-month stay in Pakistan, and help support her grandmother and two sisters who would remain in Afghanistan. If the organization could do all of that, Nargis would be able to walk and run with the other children without pain. Unfortunately, Welcome the Stranger was not able to obtain the travel visas.
In 2024, Anna helped form a new nonprofit organization — the Irene M. Rossi Fund — this organization with a board composed of family and friends, worked with a pediatric surgeon in Pakistan to help the family obtain the necessary visas. In addition to obtaining the visas the Fund was able to provide the prior planned support. In Pakistan, Nargis underwent two significant surgeries and physical therapy. By the end of her six-month stay, Nargis was smiling and able to walk. By 2025, Nargis — now age 13 — and her family were safely back in Afghanistan, reunited with the rest of her family. She was now able to go outside and run, play, and laugh with the other children. She and her family excitedly awaited their return to Pakistan for Nargis’s third and final surgery.
Then something awful happened — the borders between Afghanistan and Pakistan closed, and hostilities broke out. Nargis, despite needing to complete her treatment, was not allowed back into Pakistan. With the Taliban’s takeover of the country, food supplies dwindled. Like many children, Nargis suffered from malnutrition, and she was hospitalized in Kabul to treat the malnutrition with the Irene M Rossi Fund’s help.
Today, the Irene M. Rossi Fund attempts to continue to support Nargis and her family by sending money for food, but there is often little available. Meanwhile, the Fund works continually to get Nargis back to Pakistan where she can complete her final surgery, and where the family can purchase and prepare ample, nutritious food.
To help Nargis and her family, the Fund needs your support. Every contribution — no matter how small — brings Nargis closer to obtaining the lifesaving care she needs for a pain-free, fulfilling life. Thank you for your support.
