Leave Home and Don’t Come Back
Reza Uddin was born in the epicenter of the Burmese government’s ethnic cleansing campaign against Rohingya Muslims. For the first years of his life,
Category: Genocide
A Way Around Closed Doors
“Always find a way to climb back up,” says Souleymane Adam, reflecting on what he has learned as a survivor of genocide. “And not back up to where we came […]
Finally A Place to Call Home
Every time someone asks May Lui Tike where she’s from, she answers: “I am not from anywhere.” She has a good reason for this response:
There is still work to do
Divine Irambona loves to challenge herself. Maybe because her life was a struggle from the moment she was born. Her mother died shortly after giving birth to
The Elusive Feeling of Safety
It was dark when they left. They walked and walked, women, children, parents, elders, through the woods, up hills, until his feet hurt and his grandfather had to scoop
Tears for the Country He Left
In a small town in the northwest part of Cambodia called Chongkal, the 5-year-old boy could not cry. His father had been taken by Khmer Rouge soldiers, bound for
There Is a Hopeful Tomorrow
Things were going well for Jenny Munezero in Portland, Oregon. She was working in a rewarding career and engaged to a man she adored.
Leaving a Land of Chaos
Toys are everywhere in the small apartment in Vancouver, Washington. A sheet of paper posted at a child’s eye level shows the first, impressive attempts of a
Abdi Nor Iftin: Call Him American
Abdi Nor Iftin knew just what America would look like. It would look like a giant New York City. Tall, tall buildings would soar to the sky. Humans would scurry
From Survival to Triumph
There are survivalists who stockpile food and weapons against what they see as the coming apocalypse. Then there are survivors, such as Amida Kyanza, born in
Learning to See a Future
“I’m never going to get out of this place,” AyeChan May thought as a young teenager. In Mae Ra Moe refugee camp in Thailand where she grew up, she saw […]
“I Lived to Tell the World”
The guy on the MAX train shot an angry glare at a younger man sitting nearby. Emmanuel Turaturanye was dressed in the plaid shirt and down jacket of the Pacific […]
From Bullets to Building
Marbles, three books of short Kurdish stories written in Arabic, and two AK-47 rounds. “With war always going on, those were my trophies (to take with me),”
Taking the Opportunity to Shine
Jeanette Amisi Mmunga was born Tosha Kitungano, but has decided to answer to a new name — one she chose for herself. Mmunga was born Feb. 19, 2001,
Once Home, Now a Jungle
For the first 18 years of his life, Reza Uddin was a citizen of Burma, now officially known as Myanmar. And then, suddenly, he was not. That’s because Uddin is […]