Contributors

Jean Carroll

Community Liaison

Jean is a native of southern California. She always wanted to be a teacher. Her teaching began as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines for two years. She graduated from UCLA in Sociology and completed her teaching degree. For the next 28 years she taught K-5 in the inner city schools of Los Angeles. This led to teaching ESL to students from Mexico, Cuba, and Central America. She earned a Masters's Degree in Marriage and Family Counseling with her husband.

After she and her husband retired they began a volunteer career of teaching adults, senior high and university students in China and India. Her interests are learning about other people, their cultures, and reading.

IMG 2556 1 Jean Carroll
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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