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
Category: Refugee
Say Goodbye to All Your Problems
It’s 2010 and Johana Amani is 10 years old. She is speeding through the Congo in the middle of the night on the back of a stranger’s motorcycle. She and […]
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.
Turning Pain Into Ambition
Lisa Amani is a driven 18-year-old. This fall, she will start her first year at University of Oregon, with $130,000 worth of scholarships.
Tending a Garden and Her Dreams
Salsabel Al Masri’s garden was the center of her world. She and her five brothers spent every day after school chasing each other among the olive, orange, apple,
Finding Courage in the Unfamiliar
When Japhety Ngabireyimana landed in the United States at age nine, he thought he was seeing ghosts. “I was surrounded by a bunch of white people at the airport,”
A Career Wrapped in Banana Leaves
The first thing to know about Phet Schwader is that his first name is pronounced “Pet.” Unless it marks the start of a word, the letter “H” is typically
Desert to Oregon, a Paintbrush in Hand
Hussein Al-Baiaty was born in Iraq during the first Gulf War. To escape the dangerous living conditions, he and his family fled to a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia.
In the Land of the Free
One of Mariamou’s Abdoulye’s earliest memories of growing up in the Central African Republic: being chased by someone with a machete.
Determination Born in a Refugee Camp
During the 1990s, Bhutan’s policy of “One Nation, One People,” forced Nabin Dhimal, who was just a young child at the time, to leave his home with his family and […]
Woman Without a Country
As the daughter of an Iraqi, Eman Abbas and her family faced severe discrimination in her home country of Kuwait during the 1980s when the country enacted
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
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