READ OUR OFFICIAL STATEMENT ON THE U.S. FY2026 REFUGEE ADMISSIONS CAP AND PRIORITIZATION
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Blog

Volunteer Perspective

Building Friendships in the Community

Their Story is Our Story was invited to participate in “Welcoming Kansas City” to collaborate with and support groups ranging from Arabic communities to groups dedicated to supporting women who have been sexually abused or involved in human trafficking

March 31, 2023

Call to Action

Why consent matters to us (and why it should matter to you too).

It is especially important to provide accurate information as to how a photo will be used and obtain consent when working with refugees.

March 16, 2023

Volunteer Perspective

Stories are Changemakers: An Instagram Live with Sarah Kippen Wood

Sarah Kippen Wood, Former Executive Director of Their Story is Our Story (TSOS), shares how stories connect and lead to change in an interview with Darien Laird, our Director of External Media. Sarah gives us an inside look at how TSOS functions and shares how telling her story helped her fight a stage four cancer diagnosis.

March 9, 2023

Call to Action

Uniting for Ukraine: U.S. Sponsors Needed

Just as citizens in Europe and the U.K. have heroically supported displaced Ukrainians by opening up their homes or securing other housing, assisting with school enrollments, employment needs, and language learning, Americans now have the opportunity via the Welcome.us Sponsor Circles program to directly help newly arrived Ukrainians. The United States has committed to welcoming 100,000 Ukrainians temporarily for a period of two-years and the ability to apply for employment authorization in the U.S. as long as they have a U.S.-based sponsor to petition for them.

January 31, 2023

Volunteer Perspective

The American Dream via the Darien Pass

When I was in high school, I was fascinated by geography, and it struck me that there was a highway that I could hop on in my car and drive all the way down into South America. As an imaginative young girl growing up on the Texas-Mexico border, the idea of a road that could take me from my sleepy border town, Laredo, Texas, to the edge of the world in South America, left me awe struck. In high school I learned that this highway is called the Pan-American Highway.

January 9, 2023

Refugee Perspective

Instagram Live with Egette Indele, Founder of Safe Haven

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.

November 30, 2022

Press Release

Their Story is Our Story and By Women, For Women Announce Partnership to Collect and Share Stories of Displaced Women

Their Story is Our Story (TSOS) and By Women, For Women (BWFW) announce a partnership focused on collecting and sharing stories of displaced women.

November 7, 2022

In The NewsPodcast

Top of Mind: When is War Justified?

Through the connections made by the TSOS Community Programs team, we were able to connect Yalda Royan with Julie Rose for this powerful episode, "When is War Justified?"

October 24, 2022

Volunteer Perspective

All Change (yet no change) for the UK

Queen Elizabeth's passing has brought a renewed love of Paddington Bear, who for many charities, has become a powerful image for refugees. Mugs and t-shirts with pictures of Paddington and stating ‘Migration is not a Crime’ can be seen. And who can argue with a cute bear?

October 24, 2022

Volunteer Perspective

Inviting others to help write a story of success

I quickly realized that in order for my friend Jahan to re-establish her upended art career, she would need some help from a local artist. Enter Ann Marie Coolick, an artist from Arlington, Virginia.

October 24, 2022
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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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