Berhan's Letter: "My Dreams Did Not Die"

Dear readers, 

I hope that my story will change something in your life. My name is Berhan. I was born and raised in Ethiopia. For me, a place l called home was a community of joy and safety until tribalism broke the peace of our world. I was 11 years old when my Auntie and l fled to Nairobi, Kenya. I lost all my family members back home. My Auntie was the only person I had, yet she did not want to accept the responsibility of caring for me. Therefore, she abandoned me in Kenya. Nairobi is a city with which l was not familiar. Thankfully, the UN came to my rescue and transferred me to RefuSHE's Safe House.  

I was traumatized by all the difficulty l had to endure thinking of my family's loss. Finding myself alone in an unfamiliar world, I felt like I had no place in this society. RefuSHE provided me with trauma care, which helped me accept what had happened to me and move forward with my future. Moving on was the most difficult thing to achieve. However, with the guidance and support of RefuSHE’s counselors, l was able to heal.  

It was challenging to communicate with other girls initially, as I did not speak Swahili or English. The only language I could utter was Amharic. We all had different cultures and grew in diverse backgrounds. but no matter our differences, we were all united by our circumstances. RefuSHE supported me for six years. I attended school, learned other languages like Swahili and English, gained skills in tailoring, and later joined the Artisan Collective.

Coming to the US, I had mixed feelings of excitement and fear, thinking about how different life would be. When I first arrived, I suffered dreadfully from loneliness, as l used to live with many girls at RefuSHE but now found myself in this new world alone in my apartment.  

However, I realized that the time had come for me to use all the skills that I learned at RefuSHE. They placed a huge emphasis on the belief that education is the key to success. So, I enrolled in a Job Corps where I took classes to become a CNA and received my high school diploma within a year. Staring at all the opportunities that I had in the US excited me and motivated me to work hard. Now I am in college in a two-year program and working as a CNA at Nebraska Medicine Center. 

My dream is to inspire other young refugee women who are going through a similar situation. I want to be an example of why they shouldn't give up no matter what. The most valuable advice l have for them is, before you can succeed, you must work on yourself. I believe that young refugees are capable of so much, and all they need is the opportunity. If I can succeed, why can’t you? There is no reason for our dreams to die. I am so grateful to all of RefuSHE’s supporters for changing my life and those of so many other young women.  

Sincerely,
Berhan