Written by Melissa Dalton-Bradford
This is how nonprofits work: You show up and lean on the strongest woman around. Meet that woman, Trisha Leimer, President of Their Story is Our Story. Our scrappy band of seven founding members (including @lizthayerart, @lindsaysilsby, @garrettgibbons, Twila Bird and Morgan Gibbons) conducted and documented dozens of hours of interviews with refugees in Greece and Germany over the summer, and those pieces are now being translated thanks to many of you volunteers.
Trisha and I are on the ground here in central Germany facilitating connections between refugees and locals, teaching German, and discovering on a daily basis stories among our refugee friends that we plan to bring to you.
Our artists are painting, editing photos, weaving together video footage, posting and reposting and putting all of this on our brand new TSOS website. Then there's the whole technical and legal backstage labor involved....it's huge, and it's happening.
This pic was taken by Ali, our Afghan friend whose resilience and good humor keeps us smiling.
Instagram Live with Egette Indele, Founder of Safe Haven
Egette was born and raised in a refugee camp in Tanzania, Africa. In 2021, she graduated with a B.S. in psychology from George Mason University. In 2022, she received her MA in psychology with a focus in Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, also from George Mason. She was recently featured in Forbes on World Mental Health Day. She founded Safe Haven Space, to empower and educate refugee families in the US about mental health and wellbeing.
Their Story is Our Story and By Women, For Women Announce Partnership to Collect and Share Stories of Displaced Women
Their Story is Our Story (TSOS) and By Women, For Women (BWFW) announce a partnership focused on collecting and sharing stories of displaced women.
Top of Mind: When is War Justified?
Through the connections made by the TSOS Community Programs team, we were able to connect Yalda Royan with Julie Rose for this powerful episode, "When is War Justified?"