My friends who came to Italy seeking refuge are my best life teachers. They keep my problems in perspective. They came here as refugees fleeing war, violence, and poverty. They are strong, thankful, and wise. One dear friend boarded a boat with her husband and infant daughter in the dark of night when she was terrified of water. Another friend lived on the streets of Rome for a week before finding someone that would give him a chance to work. Another friend arrived in Italy running for his life. Have these friends found refuge? Are they still refugees? They are learning the local language, they work, they serve in their communities and church congregations. What do you think? What comes to mind when someone says the word “refugee”? To me, the title refugee, is a badge of honor like prisoner of war or a Holocaust survivor. It says something about a person’s life experience and personal strength to survive.
This blog gives us a space to share what we are learning from our friends who are or have been refugees and the situations they face through our eyes. I’ve lived in Italy for nine years. I don’t know everything there is to know about the refugee situation here. Instead of letting what I don’t know paralyze my writing, I will write what I am learning. You might be reading this because you have friends who have come to your country seeking refuge. Are they still refugees?
Partner Profile: No One Left Behind
Their Story is Our Story and No One Left Behind (NOLB) joined forces in 2025 to launch the StoryShield program.
We spoke with Matthew Marcellus, Director of Communications with NOLB, and asked what the partnership with TSOS has meant for his organization and their Afghan clients.
Context with Layma
Social media presents us with an endless scroll of headlines and ‘hot takes’. What’s often missing is context. What is the history that led up to an event? Whose interests are served by a certain policy? What effects is that policy having on people’s lives? Layma Murtaza produces and hosts the video series “Context with Layma”, featured on Their Story is Our Story’s social media channels. We spoke to her about the context of her own life, as an Afghan-American and a professional in humanitarian aid, that led her to use storytelling to illuminate the personal and political context behind the headlines.
De-skilling and the Mental Health Effects Among Refugee Physicians
Discussions of physician workforce policy tend to organize themselves around numbers. Shortage projections, residency slot allocations, and licensing timelines dominate the literature, and for understandable reasons. More than 83 million people in the United States currently live in areas without sufficient access to a primary care physician, and projections suggest the country could face a shortage of as many as 120,000 physicians by 2030.