In the past year, an estimated 85,000 Afghan refugees were resettled across the United States. Roughly 15,000 of them now call the greater Sacramento area home, and thousands more are still expected to arrive. About 70% are children. The average family arrives with five or six of them.
These are not strangers from a faraway headline. Many of these families supported and protected U.S. troops over twenty years of war. When America withdrew from Afghanistan, the people who had stood beside our soldiers were left exposed to the very real terror of retaliation. Some escaped. Many did not. The ones who reached safety carried very little with them — and arrived with more than most of us can imagine.
Now they are here, settled in our own backyard. And we believe that’s not an accident.
When the Help Runs Out
The federal government does step in to help newly arrived families. But that assistance lasts roughly 90 days. After three months, families who barely speak the language, who don’t know the city, and who are still processing profound loss are largely on their own.
The gaps that remain are wide. One of the deepest is healthcare — not just any healthcare, but care that is culturally sensitive, language-specific, and genuinely dignified. A clinic visit can be frightening when you can’t communicate your symptoms, when no one shares your customs, and when the trauma you carry has no easy translation. For many Afghan families, the question isn’t only can I see a doctor but will anyone here actually see me?
We intend to help change that.
It Started in Living Rooms
Healing Grove began the way trust always begins; slowly, in person, one home at a time.
Dr. Tom Stafford, a physician trained in internal medicine and pediatrics, has long felt called to care for the most vulnerable. For him, medicine is the skill, but healing in Jesus’ name is the calling. He’s not doing this alone. A team of volunteer doctors, nurses, and support staff have given their time to serve this community.
Among them is “Roma” a female Afghan doctor whose path first crossed with ours back in 2020. None of us knew then how God would use that connection. Today she works full-time with Healing Grove, providing medical care, cultural care, translation, and a bridge of trust between families and the doctors serving them. She is a gift to the refugees and to the team alike.
Together, this team makes house calls. They sit on living room floors, listen to long and difficult stories, and tend to acute and chronic health needs that often haven’t been addressed in years. Other needs surface too — schooling, work, paperwork — and the team connects families to organizations who can help. These visits frequently end the way Afghan hospitality intends: with tea, with treats, and, when the family is open to it, with prayer over their health and their new home.
We’ve also launched a school-ready vaccine program to help newly arrived children enroll in local schools as quickly as possible, alongside a growing network of volunteer specialists ready to step in as specific needs arise.
“Better is a neighbor nearby than a brother in a distant land.” — Proverbs 27:10
Four Kinds of Brokenness
The needs we encounter rarely fit neatly into a chart. We’ve come to think of them in four dimensions:
Physical. Real, unique, and often long-neglected health needs met with high-quality care.
Emotional. The word trauma barely begins to describe what these families witnessed, both during the war and in the chaos of evacuation.
Familial. Nearly every family left someone behind; a parent, a sibling, a child, a spouse. Many still fear for the lives of relatives in Afghanistan. (This is why, in our photos, you’ll rarely see the faces of adults. Protecting the families left behind matters more than a compelling image.)
Spiritual. Beneath all of it is the deepest need of all; the caring, compassionate, healing love of Christ, which we are uniquely positioned to share in both word and deed.
From Home Visits to a Home Base
Home visits have carried us a long way. They’ve built relationships, established a track record, and taught us exactly what this community needs. But they have limits. Honestly, the needs now outpace what a handful of house calls can meet.
That’s where the vision for Healing Grove Health Center comes in.
We’re working to lease, renovate, and equip a community clinic in Sacramento — close to where the Afghan community already lives — designed from the ground up to serve this population. It will be the hub for everything: culturally competent healthcare, soul care, and cultural care, all under one welcoming roof.
This vision is the culmination of years of careful work. The launch team has come together. The planning and research are complete. Home visits are well underway. The clinic is the next and most important step and work has already begun.
Healing Grove Health Center is a collaborative effort between doctors, NGOs, churches, and Healthbridge Global. It’s a sister project of Healing Grove San Jose, which has served undocumented immigrants for years. And it’s built to last: Healing Grove has a clear plan to sustain its own operations once the clinic is open. What we’re raising for now is the permanent home that makes it all possible.