Award-winning artist K’naan releases new song honouring refugees
In his first new recording for more than a decade, singer-songwriter who fled Mogadishu as a child says he wanted the song to feel ‘like a home for those of us made homeless by conflict’ By UNHCR Staff Canadian-Somali artist K’naan, whose unofficial World Cup...
Fighting for her dreams: female Afghan judoka builds a new life in Canada
By Levon Sevunts | 19 June 2023 Nigara Shaheen was only an infant when her parents were forced to flee Afghanistan to escape a ravaging civil war in 1994. In complete secrecy, they trekked through dangerous mountain backroads before reaching safety in neighbouring...
Alphonso Davies: A New Hope
Farhan Devji writes the biography of Canada’s rising soccer star, Alphonso Davies, born to Liberian parents in a refugee camp in Ghana. By Rohan Stritch | 28 April 2023 A Vancouver-based author has penned the first biography of Canadian soccer megastar and UNHCR...
Love letter to Yemen
My dear Yemen, I cannot believe it has been eight years. My heart is filled with many emotions as I think about all that you have endured. The past years have been marked by unbearable pain, devastating loss, and unspeakable horrors. Yet, even in the face of such...
Helga Loevinsohn, a 98-year-old survivor of Nazi Germany, gifts her compensation from the German government to uplift young refugees
At 98 years old, Helga shares her experience of becoming a refugee, first escaping Germany to find safety in England and later settling in Canada By Rohan Stritch Together with the support of her sons, Helga has decided to gift the compensation she’s received from the...
Dreams take flight for Syrian refugee pilot in Canadian Arctic
Nour Utayim embarks on a career in aviation becoming the first female refugee pilot in Canada By Levon Sevunts When Nour Utayim puts on her headset, the chaotic world outside the cockpit of Air Inuit passenger airplane goes quiet. As she readies the aircraft for the...
Ukrainian illustrator, Veronika Kotyk, brings the story of forced displacement to life in ‘A Nest in the North’
A story of kindness and belonging, ‘A Nest in the North’ celebrates the core Canadian value of kindness By Rohan Stritch ‘A Nest in the North’ is a unique story book produced by Tim Hortons in partnership with the Ukrainian illustrator, Veronika Kotyk. The...
Home is where the heart is: how former asylum-seekers are giving back
Finding the meaning of home while on a journey in search of safety and refuge By Soo-Jung Kim On a bright December afternoon, the burgundy front door swings open. A few hours earlier, a group of volunteers had dropped by, armed with a wreath in hand, to decorate the...