Refugee Story

Wilmot Collins - Mayor of Helena, Montana

Our three-year-old boy was lost on the other side.

So the man started flogging me. See the scars? All over my body!

I had no rights, no freedom to choose my path.

"Refugees experience all kinds of trauma prior to, during, and after their journeys to safety..."

"Refugees have often known extreme hunger, sleeplessness, frostbite, sunstroke, ... various sicknesses and ailments that have gone untreated during long periods preceding their flight and during the journey itself..."

"Of the 71 million forcibly displaced people in the world, 41 million are displaced within their own countries..."

I pray most of all for my children who are still in Afghanistan and Iran.

"He left me with two babies and went to Libya ... I wemt to Libya, but I didn't find him."

"I only want to be treated like a human being. I just want to be free and to live in peace and safety..."

Whilst safe from the Myanmar military in the camps, Rohingya women remain at risk due to gender-based and sexual violence, discrimination, human trafficking and health problems

We lived peacefully. But when gang members wanted me to sell drugs in the middle of my fruit, I said, “No.”

If you have a child, you will understand how I feel.

The first to see the magic - the last to lose hope

In the constitution, on paper, women have equal rights with men, but in reality, they have no rights there.