Inside the Work of Kindness Begins with Me
Photo Courtesy of Kindness Begins with Me
By: Aman Rahman
For many newcomers arriving in the United States, resettlement can pose a new set of experiences. From accessing food and transportation, to adjusting to the environment around them and building social connections, newly arrived families navigate unfamiliar systems. Founded in 2022, Kindness Begins with Me, an Afghan Support program partner of MO-ORA, was built around listening to recently arrived families and responding to the needs they identify.
During the influx of Afghan refugees resettling in St. Louis and broader Missouri area in 2022, the founder of Kindness Begins with Me, connected with an Afghan family and witnessed how transportation barriers limited the family’s ability to get groceries and the ways language challenges made enrolling their children into school difficult. Kindness expanded from providing families with immediate assistance with transportation and outings, to becoming a multifaceted organization, serving more than 200 families a week, most of them women.
Kindness programs are designed to promote empowerment, education and battle isolation. The primary programs include a women’s social group, family-based English classes, a multi-step permit and practical driving program and summer excursions. Kindness also offers transportation support to programming for clients that need it.
The women’s group meets weekly and focuses on combatting social isolation. These classes provide a space for women to be together, while receiving structured support in English and wellness. Women can also bring their non-school aged children so they can be more ready when they go to school. Programming is tailored to different proficiency levels and interests, with some women focusing on conversational English, while others express interest in improving language skills needed for employment or continued education.
This participant driven approach also drew in the Kindness Begins with Me executive director, Jessica Pachak. With a background in K-12 education and experience as a school principal, Jessica joined Kindness in 2024, after seeing the number of English language learners in her school increase and noticing gaps in resources for those families. Jessica notes that this work is personal to her as an educator and as someone from the St. Louis area.
“I care about connecting people to our city and about St. Louis being a place where people are actively working to welcome newcomers,” Jessica said.
To address transportation barriers, Kindness offers a 10-week permit preparation course taught in the women’s primary languages including Dari, Pashto and Arabic. Once clients have received their permit, they receive targeted instruction on the English needed for the driving test and from there, are connected to Welcome Neighbor STL for free driving courses.
The largest program that Kindness Begins with Me offers is their English classes for entire families. On Thursdays, the organization runs 19 classes simultaneously, serving around 150 clients. This includes younger children through the high school level, and adults who are grouped by English proficiency. Class curriculum continues to grow based on client interests. In January, they plan to expand their English classes to incorporate financial literacy in the United States, something both men and women have expressed wanting a better understanding of.
One client moment in particular stands out to Jessica. Badrah (name changed for privacy), who has been a part of Kindness as a client for two years, expressed to Jessica that she had been feeling lonely while adjusting to her life in St. Louis. During a summer excursion organized by Kindness, Jessica describes hearing a burst of excited voices and learned that Badrah ran into a friend from Afghanistan that she had not seen in years. The two had once seen each other daily at the markets in Afghanistan and had since lost contact.
“Now they see each other three times a week at programs,” Jessica said. “It's a memory of home and the reconnection of two good friends.”
Kindness Begins with Me continues to serve the refugee community and works to actively help clients find community and become self-sufficient. Reporting from Kindness, shows that in 2025, 37 women earned their learners permit, 13 women earned their driver's license and 47 women were promoted at least one level in English class.
For anyone interested in more information, please visit Home | Kindness Begins with Me. For anyone interested in more information, please visit Home | Kindness Begins with Me.