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Blog → May 2, 2022

TSOS May Book Club: We Are Displaced

We are displaced

What is the TSOS Book Club?
TSOS book club is a place to come together and learn about and discuss literature based on the stories of refugees and newcomers. We hope it will be a place where perspectives might change and empathy and understanding will be increased.


Why join?
We want to provide a safe place for discussions about great stories and would love for you to add to what we are learning!

Join the TSOS Facebook Book Club Group


Our next book: We Are Displaced by Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai is well known around the world for her work to help educate girls. However, you may not be familiar with her work to support refugees. Malala has visited many refugee camps in her travels to promote education for girls. She has met many girls who have amazing stories of resilience and strength. Malala has chosen to share some of these girls’ stories, which is the basis for her book, We Are Displaced.

In this book you meet several different girls from different countries who are refugees. They share the experiences they have had getting to a place of safety. They share their struggles and their hopes, along with some of their dreams. This book gives the reader perspective and will help them recognize some of what refugees are forced to endure.

For more info about Malala’s organization and her work, check out the Malala Fund.

Purchase We Are Displaced here.



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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