Blog → April 29, 2018

Displacement Can Happen to Anyone

Hameds Family

Written by Hamed Arian

As mankind, living in this world together, we are all “refugees.” Because we are members of the same worldwide family, we should have empathy and solidarity for those who are forced to flee from their home countries because their lives are at risk. Displacement can happen to anyone. 

Refugees who have been forced to leave their homelands and cross international boundaries cannot return home safely. Many have spent their whole lives struggling for their rights to live in peace. They did not choose to be refugees but were forced to seek asylum in other countries. As a worldwide family, they should be respected and welcomed to new homes and expected to contribute to the good of all in return.

I am honored to work with Their Story is Our Story: Giving Voice to Refugees (TSOS) as a translator and refugee coordinator and help them tell the stories of refugees to the world. I help them because I am a refugee and had to flee from my home country with my family to survive! 

I am committed to work with TSOS, to stand with them and help them in as many ways as possible because I know refugees very well and I can feel their pains. 

May God bless and protect them all and bring them happiness and peace. (Amen)

Hamed With His Family
Hamed with his Family
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We spoke with Matthew Marcellus, Director of Communications with NOLB, and asked what the partnership with TSOS has meant for his organization and their Afghan clients.

August 13, 2026

Context with Layma

Social media presents us with an endless scroll of headlines and ‘hot takes’. What’s often missing is context. What is the history that led up to an event? Whose interests are served by a certain policy? What effects is that policy having on people’s lives? Layma Murtaza produces and hosts the video series “Context with Layma”, featured on Their Story is Our Story’s social media channels. We spoke to her about the context of her own life, as an Afghan-American and a professional in humanitarian aid, that led her to use storytelling to illuminate the personal and political context behind the headlines.

August 13, 2026
What would you do if you had to leave everything behind?

By the end of 2025, more than 117.8 million people worldwide had been forcibly displaced by war, persecution, or human rights abuses — and 45 million of them are children.

They arrive in refugee camps and countries seeking safety and carrying little: legal papers, if they're lucky. A backpack. A child's hand in theirs.

What they carry that we can't see is heavier: fractured families, homes they'll never return to, professions they loved, friends and relatives they may never see again.

In a climate where immigrant stories are often ignored or twisted, we believe stories are a form of justice. When someone shares what they survived, they reclaim their voice. When we amplify it through film, photography, and advocacy, the world listens. Hearts soften. Policy begins to shift.

Because when a lawmaker sees a person instead of a statistic, and a neighbor understands instead of fears, rebuilding becomes possible.

Your support helps us share these stories where they matter most.

— Kristen Smith Dayley, Executive Director, Their Story is Our Story

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