THE JOURNEY:
THE HEROIC ACT OF MIGRATION It takes a lot of guts to leave everything behind in the face of life-threatening danger like the families enrolled in Miry’s List did. Some of the families in our program have gone to hell and back to survive, escape, start over, find strength, hope, relearn human connection, face isolation and loss of agency in their own lives. These are some of the abilities it takes to resettle as a refugee in a new country. They jump into the unknown as a family - this experience is unique but not uncommon.
How come the adults in that apartment aren’t at work? Why aren’t those kids at school? Where’s their furniture? What’s with the take-out boxes? Don't they care about nutrition? What kind of parents put their kids in this situation? The hundreds of Miry’s List families have taught us: Heroic parents.
Often when we meet resettling families, they are living in sparsely-furnished or unfurnished apartments – no chairs, couches, beds. If somebody walked by and looked through the window of one of these darkened apartments, seeing a big family of 7 or 8 people sitting on the floor, without furniture or lighting, they might ask themselves:
Parents who have experienced migration have had to make the ultimate choice. A no-going-back choice. About staying or leaving. Needing to do what was best for their kids. Making the choice because of their kids. Their experience is truly a hero’s journey.
Zulal, 7. Kabul, Afghanistan. Arrived Dec 2016 Photograph by Robyn Von Swank MIRY’S LIST ANNUAL REPORT 2019
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