Blog → April 30, 2018

The Mosaic of Our Future

Mosaic Meme

“It has been one year since the refugee crisis landed on our doorstep here in Germany with the suddenness of a tsunami. In these last twelve months my horizons have been stretched, my heart pulled, my life lit up and my perspective forever changed. I now consider many beautiful men, women and children, whom I ordinarily should never have met, to be some of my closest friends. But these times are anything but ordinary...never before in history has the world been in such flux.

“Their world was shattered, and the pieces are being sprinkled like some new mosaic across ours. It is up to each one of us to determine what our new shared world picture will look like. Peaceful or in turmoil. Accepting and open or discriminating and closed. Integrated and colorful or segregated and black and white.

“Whatever we decide, their future is our future. Their story is our story.”

- Trisha Leimer, TSOS President, quoted in November 2016.

Other Posts

Partner Profile: No One Left Behind

Their Story is Our Story and No One Left Behind (NOLB) joined forces in 2025 to launch the StoryShield program.

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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