Hear Meymuna's resilient story as she shares her experiences understanding her past as a refugee and her journey in founding her non-profit. 

Meymuna Interview

Henna Pithia talks about her experiences as a USC law student and how she found her passion to help refugees achieve citizenship status. She also shares stories about her time with the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project, under the  United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). 

Henna Pithia

"My interest in refugees primarily comes from having spent time in these war zones and seeing what people go through. That was one of the things that I liked about journalism because I could see these issues up close and personal and try to walk in other people's shoes."

- Pauline Lubens, War and Public Health Lecturer and Public Health doctoral student whose 35 year photojournalism career  included spending time covering the personal toll of war.

Pauline Luben

Caroline Reiser and Melissa Main are both part of IRAP - the Iraqi Refugees Assistance Project. 

Since 2002, the United States has employed at least 50,000 Iraqi and Afghan nationals as US military interpreters During both dangerous combat situations and the work of governing and rebuilding, these interpreters stood shoulder-to-shoulder with American soldiers Without them, US troops would have faced greater risks and suffered more casualties Unfortunately, these Iraqi and Afghan allies have become targets of anti-American violence: military interpreters and their families are frequently abducted and assassinated by Al Qaeda, Iraqi insurgents and the Taliban

Applying for a refugee status is tough. Most applicants remain stuck in a bureaucratic purgatory that typically takes upwards of two years to complete. 

IRAP is the leading authority in helping Iraqi and Afghan nationals navigate the visa process, pushing for greater rights and accountability and advocating on behalf of individual clients.

Listen to the great work UCI's law school!

Caroline Reiser, co-director and Melissa Main, case manager of IRAP

"Being a 1.5 generation Chinese American (my mother came to the US in the fifth grade, but my dad was born in California) was difficult as a kid. I never felt, and still do not entirely feel, completely Chinese or completely American. You can see a similar struggle internally in refugee youth. No one teaches you how to deal with personal identity or coming to terms with your family history. We need to talk about how displacement effects every aspect of a person's physical and mental needs."

Listen to her interview for more insight into her thoughts on refugee youth!

Christina Ong, Developmental Director of Tiyya

"My most memorable experience during my research in Chicago has to be having dinner inside the refugees’ homes. They were extremely kind and welcoming. They allowed me to interview them in their homes often times for around 2-3 hours. I have great memories of sitting down with them, enjoying the meals that they had prepared, and listening to their stories about living in the refugee camps. They told me how many of them had lived in these camps for about 18-19 years without running water. My favorite part was just hearing how they were able to overcome incredibly dire circumstances. Some of these individuals were practicing Christianity in Nepal. Because of this, they were on the receiving end of violence and discrimination. There was a lot of mistreatment solely because of the religion they followed."
- Vanessa, Doctoral Student at UCI studying Sociology

Vanessa, Doctoral Student at UCI studying Sociology, Research: refugee populations

Meet Ajda. Have you seen Hotel Rwanda? He was a Tutsi during the genocide that unfolded in the Congo. “Being a Tutsi, my tribe was targeted, killed, and rejected by society, the government, and everyone… I grew up in fear of being killed.” Having arrived in America last year, he hopes to raise awareness about the Congo by telling his story. 

Next Wednesday (04/29), he will be at the Refugee Storytelling event. Come out, listen, and support him and other refugees who are courageous to talk about their pasts.


Adja

"I didn’t realize that both my mother and her family were refugees until I took a refugee narrative class with the brilliant Dr. Maureen Shay.
The accounts my mother told me as a child all came to mind as I read the refugee stories from class. She recalled memories of riots breaking out near her home, of hiding from Chinese-targeted violence in a neighbor’s kitchen, of my grandmother running from horse-riding rioters with her infant in her arms, of taking English lessons in preparation for her new life in the United States, and of saying goodbye to her parents at the airport, not knowing if she would ever see them again. 
It was a like an eleven week-long epiphany, during which I reconnected with my mother through her stories, sharpened the respect I have for my family, and discovered a passion that has since driven me to take action with The Tiyya Foundation and the Break the Silence campaign." - Cathy 

Cathy, Outreach Coordinator for Break the Silence

"Saigon, which is the city where I was born, to the countryside near the shore. When we got on the boat it was really cramped; there were so many people on the boat. By the third or the fourth day, we started seeing ships passing by, and that’s when we realized we were in the international shipping lane. For my family, we had happy-ending story. I mean we were lucky for Vietnamese boat people who escaped Viet Nam. Being picked up by the US Navy ship is the best scenario anyone can wish for. And we were lucky enough to encounter and be rescued by a US navy ship. 
Now, I can’t say that of every Vietnamese boat person, because most of the journeys that the Vietnamese boat people took ended up in tragedy. At the refugee camp that I stayed at in Thailand, I heard horror stories everyday…of horror stories at sea: cannibalism, being pirated, and being killed, being raped and pillaged, things like that. It was difficult for many boat people to talk about their experiences because it brought back really bad memories. 
I made a pact with myself, going back to the days that we escaped. The second or third day into the trip, we were depleting food and water. There wasn’t much hope left, and I just felt, at the particular point, that we were starting death in the eyes. I made a pact with myself and to God; I said that if I were able to survive this trip, I would dedicate myself to tell our story about what we were going through. That was the main impetus to tell the story of the boat people..."

Duc Nguyen, Boat Person Refugee and Documentary Filmmaker of Bolinao 52 (2007) and Stateless (2015)

My name is Stella Liu and I am the founder of Break the Silence. Here is a bit of a background story: I became inspired and compelled to organize this refugee awareness campaign after my experiences travelling through South East Asia and learning about the history in all the countries. Forced displacement, conflict, and refugees are all serious topics that I feel have not been brought to light enough. After around a year of gathering resources and collaboration, I have won grant funding with the Pollination Project and am partnered with many different campus organizations at UCI.

To lead up to the event, I am doing a Humans of New York like project where I am posting stories of refugees that I meet and their photos. Large scale problems are too often reduced to statistics and I hope that by highlighting stories of resilience and strength, people can really engage.

facebook.com/breakthesilenceuci

Breakthesilence_uci

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