A Story I Never Signed Up For
Rama could not escape the war all around her – the sounds of bullets, the sights of suicide bombings, the constant fear of being caught in the middle of an […]
Category: Survivor
To Bear Witness: Building Community
After the Khmer Rouge killed her husband, Saron’s mother gathered her three small children and made her way to a refugee camp in Thailand and, finally,
Keeping My Culture Alive
Tsering Dolma left Tibet, the country of her birth, as a young child carried by her parents through the snowy mountains. It was 1959 and the family was fleeing
The Heaven Between
War has been part of Saron’s family’s history for three generations. The last time he saw his father was when the Khmer Rouge came and took him away to be […]
Making Changes By Degrees
As a little girl growing up in a refugee camp in Tanzania, Olive and her friends would walk almost an hour to school, often filling their empty stomachs
Surviving A Minefield Of Terrors
Too often the stories of refugees from ravaged lands force us to confront unimaginable suffering, terror, and trauma. Binh (Ben) Thach harbored such a tale in
Building a Future With Forgiveness
When Romy Ahounou was just a little boy in the Republic of the Congo, war broke out. “My parents put me and my brother in a suitcase and put us […]
Living the World in Color
In February, 2021, Nyibol Bior published a children’s book called “My Beautiful Colors.” She chose the title because, “Colors are metaphors
A Life Shaped by War
Tim Tran is quite the jokester. “Old professors never die,” he told an otherwise serious meeting at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon.
Fleeing Hatred, Finding Home
The sanctuary of the First United Methodist Church in Southwest Portland is a cavernous space, and on Aug. 16, 1958, the pews bulged as Evelyn Diamant
A Nation Without Borders
Shabnam Rostami stood in her backyard with her children, watching the Oregon International Air Show. Suddenly, childhood memories
Standing Firm Against Persecution
For as long as she can remember, her Asian features had made Hadia Sadiqi a target for ostracism in her native Afghanistan. Anyone who saw her knew instantly
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:
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 […]