Refugees stories, unfiltered & live onstage

Happy Monday, DMV. It’s Oct. 19.

Daily Dose reader Amy Hoang Wrona, of Chevy Chase, Maryland, invited me to an event last week at which refugees went on stage to tell their stories.

The show, which Amy directs and produces, is an initiative by Homes Not Borders, a nonprofit that provides refugees and forced migrants in the D.C. area with “what they need to thrive and feel at home in the United States.” Homes Not Borders partners with the Moth and Story District nonprofits to train refugees to become storytellers and coach them to get on stage, many for the first time, Amy told me.

Thursday night at Imagination Stage in Bethesda, I sat in the audience and listened. The stories were powerful, all the more so because these people were telling us directly, live.

They fled war-torn countries. They fled the Taliban. They fled persecution and years of imprisonment.

During the intermission, Amy told me that as a refugee herself, she felt that someone else is often telling “our stories.” Through this initiative, she connects the storyteller directly to the listener. The refugees are each paid $200 to tell their stories at the annual October showcase.

For me, Sara Haidari closing words resonated. They felt like a universal truth.

In her native Afghanistan, Sara had interned at USAID and worked as a teacher and assistant principal. When U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021 and the Taliban claimed power, she fled to Turkey, where she worked as a jewelry stone setter. Then, because of her previous work with USAID, she was given an opportunity to move to the United States in 2024.

“Another country, another beginning, another unknown. But this time, something was different. I was different,” she said, having already crossed borders to go to Turkey and describing the moment she prepared for another move.

“This time that I looked at another unknown, I didn't see only fear. 
I saw bravery in myself … today, when I look back, I don't see a girl who lost everything. I see a girl who discovered her own strengths. And that realization changed everything. I learned being lost doesn't mean you are finished.
It means you are starting a new chapter of your life.

“And there is one thing I always remember — my mom's words. She told me, when one door closes, life will open another one for you. Don't lose hope. A closed door will lead you toward a better one.
And today, after everything I have been through, I understand what she means.”

Sara now lives in northern Virginia and is building a career in accounting and administration.

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Capital Weather says: Patchy frost in the suburbs gives way to plenty of sunshine, with highs in the mid-60s and light winds. Read the full forecast here. Also …

Sandy Tucker, 74, of Silver Spring, snapped these pics of her sabotaged holiday decor.

“I enjoy decorating for the Fall season but sometimes the squirrels have a different idea,” she wrote in her submission.

Share your photos of fall life in the DMV here.

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