2021 TSOS World Refugee Day Events

This year we will be holding in-person and virtual events for World Refugee Day.
IN-PERSON EVENTS
June 18
UTAH
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony and Celebration
10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
415 East 3900 South
Salt Lake City, Utah 84107
World Refugee Day Celebration
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Cottonwood Regional Park
4300 S 1300 E
Salt Lake City, Utah, 84117
Highlights of the evening include
- introduction of the Global Refugee Archive
- Photobooths celebrating tradition, individual stories, and refuge
- Live performance of multimedia composition “The Story of Our Journey”
- Reading children’s books “Samir’s Bike” and Lubna and Pebble” and more.
VIRTUAL EVENTS
June 17
Instagram Live Panel Discussion
8pm ET
View details at We Welcome Refugees
Join a We Welcome Refugees Instagram Live featuring Their Story is Our Story as we honor the stories of refugees.
June 19
Virtual Presentation and Panel Discussion
4:00 - 5:00 PM CET (10 AM EST/7AM PST)
This event is organized and hosted by TSOS Community Program Coordinators for Europe (EU/UK/Egypt)
Virtual World Refugee Day Event sharing videos, personal stories, and a panel discussion celebrating the wonderful ways refugees are bringing more joy, culture, and healing to our communities.
We invite you to take a moment to learn more and open your heart to every individual displaced, who is looking for a home.
June 20
Virtual Multimedia Composition
“The Story of Our Journey“
1 PM EDT (10 AM PST/7PM CET)
This event is organized and hosted by Sunset Run for Refugees and will be followed by a panel discussion.
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The musical score and accompanying film amplify first-hand refugee stories through a multimedia artistic experience. Authentic audio and video interview footage provided by TSOS supports the clarinet and fixed media electronics, providing the viewer with an opportunity to reflect as refugees share details of their personal, arduous journeys from a home lost to a home found.
To learn more about the composition visit https://tsosrefugees.org/conversations/the-story-of-our-journey
In preparation for World Refugee Day, check out our new playlist:
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.