Refugee Stories

It’s almost been a year since I started volunteering with a local refugee resettlement office. I mostly tutor incoming refugees in English. We have refugees get resettled here in Missouri from various conflicts around the world. Not every one has the chance to meet refugees, so I’m sharing two of their stories and portraits I took here.

This is Murad from Iraq.

“I decided to come here for my medical reasons because of my leg. In Iraq there is a lot of doctor run away. There is no professional doctor with my case. Turkey is very expensive to do the surgery, and I couldn’t afford it.”

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This is Asiya from Eritrea.

“Because of the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea there’s a lot of conspiracy about people. That they’re not trustworthy, they’re spies. … They took all the male from where they used to work. There was a lot of people that killed that day, close to 2,000 men. They put them in a big hole in the ground. From that day I decided my husband died because I didn’t hear anything after he was kidnapped from the government. I stayed 5 years after I missed my husband in 2006; I was hoping I would hear something from him. The borders were closed — no one could come in or leave.”

 

XOXO with Shanti,

Mel