Refugee Perspective

This month marks the three year anniversary of the fall of Kabul. When the city fell, many were forced to flee their homes. Women who had careers, women who dreamed of careers, and women who lifted their voices to fight for equal rights were some of those most at risk. To America’s great benefit, some of these women landed in the US.

Refugees often risk their lives crossing deserts, jungles, and oceans all in the search for shelter, freedom, or happiness. Yet, even once they’ve reached physical safety, mental mountains emerge that make daily life an uphill climb. At the November 2022 conference for the Utah Chapter of the Society for Public Health Education (USOPHE), presenters Shurooq Al Jewari and Sasha Sloan discussed mental health and inclusion, focusing on immigrants and refugees.

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.

Mini-documentary of Leonard Bagalwa's story of seeking refugee. His journey from being kidnapped in the Congo to finding a safe place to integrate and contribute to his new community in Utah.

My name is Rahim. This is my poem. I am from Afghanistan, in Kabul. I worked with the US Army as an interpreter. When the American troops left Afghanistan, the lives of all the interpreters were in danger. Many times we were threatened by the Taliban. I made it to safety in Switzerland and volunteer with Their Story is Our Story to help gather and share the stories of others forced to flee.

A small part of me imagined what that kind of high-stakes limbo must feel like. I saw their faces waiting in forgotten spaces all over Paris. A lucky few had secured apartments, but they were also in limbo, not knowing if they would be reunited with loved ones or if they would be deported back to the unresolved violence in their home countries.

Not until recently did I realize others had views about the ocean diametrically opposed to mine — not until I met Zarrin, a refugee our NPO, Their Story Is Our Story, interviewed in Greece.

Their tone shifts the instant they get to the part about crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece. The part about WATER. Many of our refugee friends grew up in landlocked regions. Water activities are nowhere part of their culture. No one we have interviewed knew how to swim.

Since I started learning from refugees, I haven’t been able to travel (as I’m doing right now) without thinking of my refugee friends.