Quy Lee tells a gripping story of his escape by boat from Viet Nam, along with 264 passengers he took along. Also, time in a Malaysian Refugee Camp, followed by a new life in the USA. Quy was part of a storytelling event called “When Home Won’t Let You Stay: Stories of Escape and Refuge.” It was co-sponsored by the ... Read More »
“We left our house with our small bag to go to the cargo ship knowing that I may never see my house again, and that we could be shot for walking the streets during the curfew.” My uncle Tai was born and grew up in Cholon. Cholon was a district of Saigon which was the capital of old South Vietnam. ... Read More »
Every time I went outside at night, I was scared to be chased by the police. In my home country of Guinea, the weather is sometimes hot and cold. I went to a private school where I had to pay, and my classes had more than thirty people. Also, dirt is found almost everywhere in the city. There were no ... Read More »
What I had was not enough. My mom and dad couldn’t provide me with what I wanted, only what I needed. Being the oldest of three, I didn’t really have someone to help me when I was enrolled in UABC University in Mexico, which is near the border with the U.S.,I had two majors: civil engineering and architecture. My mom ... Read More »
. My name is Jorga Toshinyo (name changed). In 1959, I am 9 years old and living in I live with my mom, dad and my sister. The area I live in is really bad because every day, we are at war with some gangs that live around us, and we can’t afford to eat. We can’t even have a good ... Read More »
Seconds, minutes, and hours pass by. Her legs are cramping. The market is very crowded with people buying food, clothes, and utensils. Her stand is filled with vegetables and fruits she and her family had grown. This is how they earned money. Daouda (orig: Kadidiatou Diallo) is from a country in Africa called Mauritania. She was born on January 20th, ... Read More »
Karla grew up in a 3 member family, consisting of her oldest brother, oldest sister, and Aunt Martha. Her other brothers lived with a different family. Their mom lived in America and Karla would receive calls periodically. From 1st-6th grade, she attended a catholic school where nuns were the educators and “spanking” with the ruler was acceptable, and the students ... Read More »
It was 1983, when one day Gloria woke up and realized that this wasn’t the environment or lifestyle she wanted for her children – let alone herself. She thought to herself ¨How could she leave all the items and memories behind. Who would she become? What would she become?¨ Life in London in the region that she had lived in ... Read More »
In 1999 I married my wife and my oldest child was born the next year. Even though I was now a father, I knew full well that life in this country could not continue. I had spent the previous four years before my marriage traveling around Myanmar. Based on these experiences, I learned something about my own country: that there ... Read More »
Watch Quy present his story in front of an audience, or scroll down further for the written story. It was 1975 in Vietnam. Quy was living in Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam. All around him, he was seeing effects of the Vietnam War and communist control. Ethnic Chinese like him were being discriminated against to the point where their ... Read More »