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March 22, 2017

TSOS Utah Presentations in April 2017

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Their Story is Our Story: Giving Voice to Refugees (TSOS) will present a series of multi-media programs in northern Utah during the first week of April. 

We invite you to attend and hear the story of Aeham, a concert pianist who played his piano perched on a vegetable cart amid the rubble of war-torn streets in Yarmouk to lift the hearts of traumatized children. Or Roya, who was shot in both knees because local patriarchs claimed she was a heretic for advocating for women’s rights. Or Ahmad whose legs and jaw were broken by his sweetheart’s family when he eloped with her to keep her from being forced into a polygamous marriage to an older man. Or Ali who had a leg blown off while going to school one day but later found the grit to walk on a broken prosthetic leg across two mountain ranges to escape mass murders in his village. Hope and despair, depression and resilience, defeat and victory are all exemplified in the dozens of stories collected by our TSOS team. 
 
Our main presenters will be Trisha Leimer and Melissa Dalton-Bradford — both personally involved with refugees in Europe. Garrett Gibbons’ film work will be part of our presentation, as will visual displays of stunning photographs by Lindsay Silsby, a professional London photographer, and exquisite paintings by local artist Elizabeth Thayer. At several venues we’ll also be privileged to hear from Syrian refugee Dr. Abdul Nasser Kaadan, who was nominated for a Nobel Prize in literature and now teaches at Weber State University in Ogden, and Lisa Campbell, an exceptional humanitarian who is director of a refugee camp in Greece.

These events are free and open to the public. No tickets or RSVP is necessary. 

We encourage you to invite friends and share on Facebook and Twitter.

If you are unable to attend, please consider a donation to support the work of TSOS, allowing us to tell more stories and host more presentations in the coming months and years. Thank you.

Their Story is Our Story is a 501(c)3 Non-Profit Organization under the United States Internal Revenue Code. All donations are tax-deductible. Our tax identification number is 812983626.

 Designed by John Close, Creative Director of Push Design
What would you do if you had to leave everything behind?

By the end of 2024, more than 123.2 million people worldwide had been forcibly displaced from their homes due to war, persecution, or human rights abuses.

An increase of 7.2 million over 2023, that’s more than 19,619 people every day — roughly one person every 4.4 seconds.

They arrive in refugee camps and other countries, like the US, seeking the one thing they’ve lost: safety.

Fleeing political imprisonment, ethnic violence, religious persecution, gang threats, or war crimes, they come with what little they managed to carry:

Legal papers – if they’re lucky.

A single backpack.

Sometimes a child’s hand in theirs.

They also carry the weight of what they left behind: fractured families, homes they’ll never return to, professions they loved, friends and relatives they may never see again.

They carry loss most of us can’t imagine – but also the truth of what they’ve endured.

At TSOS, we believe stories are a form of justice. When someone shares their experience of forced displacement, they reclaim their voice. And when we amplify that voice – through film, photography, writing, and advocacy – the world listens. Hearts soften. Communities open. Policy begins to shift.

That shift matters. Because when neighbors understand instead of fear…

when lawmakers see people, not politics…

when a teacher knows what her student has survived…

Rebuilding life from the ashes becomes possible.

We’re fighting an uphill battle. In today’s political climate, refugee stories are often twisted or ignored. They’re reduced to statistics, portrayed as national threats, or used to score political points.

The truth – the human, nuanced truth – gets lost, and when it does, we lose compassion.

We are here to share their truth anyway.

At TSOS, we don’t answer to headlines or algorithms. We are guided by a simple conviction: every person deserves to be seen, heard, and welcomed.

Our work is powered by the people we meet — refugees and asylum seekers rebuilding after loss, allies offering sanctuary, and communities daring to extend belonging.

Your support helps us share their stories — and ensure they’re heard where they matter most.

“What ultimately persuaded the judge wasn’t a legal argument. It was her story.”

— Kristen Smith Dayley, Executive Director, TSOS

Will you help us keep telling the truth?

No donation is too small — and it only takes a minute of your time.

Why give monthly?

We value every gift, but recurring contributions allow us to plan ahead and invest more deeply in:

  • New refugee storytelling and advocacy projects
  • Resources to train and equip forcibly displaced people to share their own stories
  • Public education that challenges fear with empathy
  • Local efforts that help communities welcome and integrate newcomers

As our thank-you, monthly supporters receive fewer fundraising messages — and more stories of the impact they’re making possible.

You don’t have to be displaced to stand with those who are.

Can you give today — and help carry these stories forward?

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Their Story is Our Story is a 501(c)3 Non-Profit Organization under the United States Internal Revenue Code. All donations are tax-deductible. Our tax identification number is 812983626.