“I was working as a judge. When the Taliban came, me and my colleagues were in our court. Suddenly the security guard come in and shout ‘You need to leave the court, the Taliban are behind that door.’ Me and my colleague decided to break our laptops. I never went back to my home again.”

—Lalah, from Afghanistan

“There are brilliant minds doing evil. They were charging extortion all over the place. One day, I didn’t have the amount they were asking for, and they told me ‘Don’t you love your family? Do you want us to kill you in front of your family?’ I filed a police report to no avail. I approached the U.S embassy with evidence. They sent a car. We each took a backpack with clothes, and our daughter.”

—Ludvin & lleana, from Honduras

“People often think that the refugees who are here have it easy, that now they are here, in America, they will be just fine - but I am in a Community Support Team of 5 members, supporting a very young family, and it’s been crisis after crisis. It’s very emotional - if we weren’t here, they would just go without.”

—Jennifer, RAA Volunteer

"I think it was when we redid the bedroom, when we realized. I just remember thinking to myself, oh my GOD, there’s six of them in this small two-bedroom apartment, and the beds they had were BROKE, yeah that’s where I felt really bad, and I wanted to do something to make their life better.”

—Giselle, RAA Volunteer