John Rudoff

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:  

Sankar Raman

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

John Rudoff

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

John Rudoff

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  

Sankar Raman

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.

Sankar Raman

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

Sankar Raman

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

Sankar Raman

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 

Sankar Raman

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 […]

Sankar Raman

“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 […]

Sankar Raman

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),”

Sankar Raman

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,

Sankar Raman

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 […]

Sankar Raman

Dignity in Helping Others

One might not expect someone who has been bullied and shot at to pour all her energy into helping others. But Divine has been defying odds and expectations

Sankar Raman

Hope for a New Generation

Jenny Munezero was two months old the night the soldiers attacked, and the only one left alive in her family’s house. “To this day nobody knows why I wasn’t killed. […]