Fartun, 26 years old: “My family was very poor and poverty brings no joy. Despite this, home is where I was the happiest, together with my mother and my son.”

“I started working when I was eleven, to support my family – mother, sister and three brothers. Even after having my son Awaz, who is now eight, I continued working far away from home, from dusk till dawn. There were over 120 km between the Al Kharaz refugee camp [in Yemen] where my family lived and Aden where I worked.”

“I used every bit of my free time to rush home. My mother and my son would wait for me at the bus station, waving from a distance. As I hugged my son, he would impatiently ask in a sweet voice, ‘Mom, what have you got for me?’ Sweets and balloons are his favorite.”

“What a huge difference between living far away, among strangers, and being home. I used to cook with my mother and tell stories. We would cook Lahoh and chicken with rice – my favorite dishes. Lahoh is pancake-like bread, made of water, flour and a drop of yeast. We used to receive the flour from UNHCR Yemen and had Lahoh for lunch every day. We still eat it today. It reminds me of home.”

Fartun, originally from Somalia, was taken to Yemen as a refugee when she was just two. Yemen, still a haven for refugees in those days (before it descended into civil war last year), did not offer many jobs for young refugee girls. Fartun’s only option was a low-paying job as a housekeeper, and life got even worse after 2011 when Yemen’s internal conflicts, political instability and insecurity escalated.

“Every day we fought for survival,” she recalls. In 2014, she received the good news that she and her son would be resettled to the United States. Her husband’s resettlement was delayed so she decided to go ahead of him. Fartun and her son were evacuated to the Emergency Transit Center in Timisoara to await completion of formalities. Shortly after arriving in Romania, Fartun gave birth to a second son who is now five months old.

She’s now dreaming of being a housekeeper again – but in her own house. “My dream is to have this nice home that I could gladly keep myself.” And in the States, her hopes will focus more on her two boys, Awaz and Adel: “I wish for my children to go to university and have a better life than mine”.

Refugees. Ordinary people living through extraordinary times. Share their stories.