Fighting for a Better Life
Life in calm Clackamas, Oregon, where Hamada Haaji Chamada lives with his family is very different from the war-torn city of Mogadishu, Somalia,
Category: Refugee
Building a Home and a New Life
Neither Govinda nor Januka ever expected to own a house. Govinda Dhimal and his wife Januka Bokhrel both grew up in refugee camps in Nepal.
Desert to Oregon, a Paintbrush in Hand
Hussein Al-Baiaty was about as far away as anyone could be when terrorists crashed two airplanes into New York’s World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
Broken Glass to Breakout Senior
In 2013, when a bomb exploded and shattered all the windows of 15-year-old Sara Mohamed’s classroom in Damascus, Syria, she better understood
Rebuilding Her Life to Reconcile
One of Dijana’s earliest memories is of sleeping in the woods with her family. They weren’t camping for fun though — they were hiding. “We were attacked in Bosnia
Making Her Family Proud
When remembering her childhood in Nepal, Anisha Ginshing reveals that her own mother has not seen her parents in 20 years. When Anisha’s mother fled Bhutan,
In Search for a Safe Haven
18-year-old Yasmin was walking to her bus stop on her way to school on Inauguration Day in January when she heard angry yelling behind her. As she turned to see […]
Starting Anew, Shaping a Future
Born in Vietnam during the fall of Saigon in 1975, two-year-old Vu Nguyen experienced what seemed to him at the time “the end of the world.” He, his five months […]
In the Land of the Free
Mariamou thought she was leaving behind hatred, violence, and fear when she arrived in America. But now in Portland, Oregon, she once again fears for her life.
Coursing the Meandering Paths
By the time Abdikarim settled in Kakuma Refugee Camp at age 11, he had already lived in three countries. He was born in 1990 in Somalia, when it was on the […]
To See the World Outside
As a young child, Naw Bi could see the mountains from afar. She often dreamed of escaping the refugee camp where she lived and climbing them up,
It Takes a Village to Raise a Child
Jean Paul was three years old when his family decided to flee their fertile home land in North Kivu in Congo. The next seventeen years they
A Future That is Yet to Come
Baghdad, during the ‘Iraqi Insurgency,’ was not a place to have a happy childhood. In 2007, at the height of its sectarian violence, it seemed as if everyone was fighting […]
Overcoming Fear and Opening Doors
The oldest child of Somali parents, Fowzia was born in Kenya and spent her early years there in east Africa. At the age of three, her family left the poverty […]
The American Dream Is Never Easy
Sumitra was born in a Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal “without a country and without an identity.” Beldangi I, where she was born and grew up, was one of seven […]