Category: Refugees

  • Appearing a Chair and a Table Out of Thin Air

    Appearing a Chair and a Table Out of Thin Air

    The first day of high school was like stepping into an alternate universe. My previous school – Iftin Charter School – was homogeneous in its composition of Muslim, Somali and first-generation students. There, I fit flush with the student population. It was a larger, more hectic, version of my own home. At Crawford High School,…

  • Mental Health: Opening Dialogue in the African Community

    Mental Health: Opening Dialogue in the African Community

    Bantu refugees have endured continuous marginalization in Somalia since their arrival as slaves from Bantu-speaking tribes in the 19th century. Even though they lived in Somalia for almost two centuries, the Bantu were still viewed and treated as foreigners and outsiders.   The persecution of the Somali Bantu during the Civil War in the 1990’s…

  • Under the Travel Ban, a Qualcomm Engineer Has Struggled to Bring His Sick Father to the U.S.

    Under the Travel Ban, a Qualcomm Engineer Has Struggled to Bring His Sick Father to the U.S.

    Sawyer Mirage, an engineer at Qualcomm, was able to successfully bring his mother from Iran to the United States. But his father’s visa has been held up in limbo, leaving the 75-year-old man alone in Iran with no one to care for him.

  • City Heights celebrates World Refugee Day

    City Heights celebrates World Refugee Day

    City Heights celebrated World Refugee Day at the Copley-Price YMCA on June 22nd, 2019. We talked with organizers and with Resilience Award recipient Jafferi Kyanza, youth counselor and co-founder of the San Diego African Youth Association.

  • City Heights holds first Business Expo

    City Heights holds first Business Expo

    On June 29, 2019 a group of successful small businesses and experts in economic development hosted the first annual City Heights Business Expo. The goal was to showcase the resources available for potential or new business owners, helping entrepreneurs take their business to the next level.