Charlottesville Christian Ministry Buys Car For Afghan Immigrant

In Charlottesville, Virginia, one resident was fortunate to find a community of generous supporters to save him from a daily 12-mile trek after a local Christian ministry raised funds to purchase a car for him.

Ahmad Raziz Hakimi immigrated to Charlottesville from Afghanistan in February after working for the U.S. military as an interpreter, according to The Roanoke Times. However, he and his family could not afford a vehicle to transport him the six-mile journey to his night job as a security guard, or to the grocery store and back, so Hakimi made the journey by foot.

Hakimi spent months making the walk despite an injured back and knee pain, as well as other health problems aggravated by the walking, he told The Daily Progress. Because of his injuries, he said, walking was easier than riding a bicycle.

But when Ray Klein, executive director of a Christian ministry called Love In The Name of Christ, heard about Hakimi’s plight, he stepped in to help. Klein’s organization helps identify local community members in need of vehicles.

Love INC partners with Bill Heck of The Heritage Inn and Charlottesville resident Malloy Ford to gift used cars to families. Klein identifies the families, Malloy identifies the car and Heck purchases it, Klein said according to The Roanoke Times.

Klein said the purpose of the program was to help families that could benefit from a car but do not have the means to acquire one, even with the help of car title lenders, adding that Hakimi’s family would be the first family to receive a car from Love INC. not headed by a single mother.

Hakimi said he appreciated that a Christian organization reached out to help his Muslim family. “I am so much excited,” The Daily Progress reported.

The vehicle will be gifted at noon, Wednesday, May 16 during Love INC’s “spring fling.”

The story of interfaith generosity out of Charlottesville comes just under a year after an alt-right, white supremacist protest held in the city brought thousands of counter-protesters out to oppose white nationalist organizations. The rally gripped the nation’s headlines, and resulted in the death of counter-protester Heather Heyer, who was run over by a member of the alt-right protest group.