I'm a banking lawyer. I’ve got a very Australian accent. Sometimes people say things to me like that refugees are not really refugees, that they are just business opportunists. I then say, ‘Well, I’m a refugee from Laos, does that change your opinion?’ With that,...
When they were around 11 years old, both my two older brothers were taken by the military into the child soldier program in South Sudan. That happened before I was even born, so I never knew them. My memories of growing up are of war, and constantly moving. Whenever...
In the civil war in El Salvador, my parents would often hear gunshots, sirens, and bombs going off all night and see dead bodies on the side of the road the next day. One night, my father had a gun pointed to his head by the military when he walked home after curfew....
(1/2) I was born in 1983 during the war between Iraq and Iran, and my dad was fighting on the front line. He used to visit us a few times per year. Growing up during the war wasn’t easy. We couldn’t go to school, and the sanctions really caused people to suffer...
I was in a serious relationship for 2 years. Things were going very smoothly, but after our families met to discuss the marriage, he suddenly broke up with me. And I had no idea why. Then he suddenly announced his engagement to someone else. It was very difficult for...