Perhaps it is a piece of conventional clothes gifted by a guardian. Or a bronze bowl used for non secular ceremonies. Or a household recipe for a favourite dish.
These are all mere objects — however they don’t seem to be simply objects. A cherished souvenir can function a connection to your loved ones, your roots, your sense of id.
This type of memento takes on new significance if it’s important to depart your homeland and set off for a brand new nation and an unsure new life.
Clockwise from left: A Liberian girl’s passport; incense stones from Yemen; a ceremonial cup and plate from an Indian village.
Clockwise from left: Ọbáṣọlá Bámigbólá, Yolanda Escobar Jiménez, Smita Sharma/for NPR
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Clockwise from left: Ọbáṣọlá Bámigbólá, Yolanda Escobar Jiménez, Smita Sharma/for NPR
Presently of unprecedented numbers of refugees — a document 27.1 million in 2021 — we wished to know: What treasured possessions are refugees taking with them? The photojournalists of The On a regular basis Initiatives interviewed and photographed eight refugees from across the globe. Listed here are the objects they stated give them consolation, solace and pleasure.
Editor’s be aware: When you’ve got a private story a couple of particular possession from your individual expertise or your loved ones’s expertise, ship an electronic mail with the topic line “Treasured objects” to goatsandsoda@npr.org together with your anecdote and your contact data. We might embrace your anecdote in a future submit.
For extra particulars on the lives of the 8 refugees profiled under, learn this story.
Olha Abakumova, an opera singer from western Ukraine, got here to the U.S. along with her daughter. (Her husband was not in a position to migrate.) Olha introduced her most treasured sheet music for Ukrainian arias. “They join me with my motherland, tradition and my roots,” she says. “Once I’m singing, I see footage in entrance of my eyes,” she says. “The phrases and music transfer by means of me and take me again to Ukraine.”
Jodi Hilton for NPR
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Jodi Hilton for NPR
Olha Abakumova, an opera singer from western Ukraine, got here to the U.S. along with her daughter. (Her husband was not in a position to migrate.) Olha introduced her most treasured sheet music for Ukrainian arias. “They join me with my motherland, tradition and my roots,” she says. “Once I’m singing, I see footage in entrance of my eyes,” she says. “The phrases and music transfer by means of me and take me again to Ukraine.”
Jodi Hilton for NPR
Nilofar Niekpor Zamani, who fled her homeland of Afghanistan and now lives within the Netherlands, made room in her crammed suitcase for a costume her mom gave her as a marriage reward: “I perceive in the present day that I could not depart the costume and the reminiscence of my mom. I did not know if I’d see her once more. I could not depart this image of my ancestors that by no means lets me overlook the place I belong.”
Nilofar Niekpor Zamani for NPR
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Nilofar Niekpor Zamani for NPR
Of all her belongings, this diary is a very powerful, says Kataleya Nativi Baca, a transgender girl who says she fled Honduras due to fears for her security and now lives in Virginia. The diary features a letter to her mother about dwelling a number of steps away from the U.S. in Tijuana and lyrics to a tune that start “It was a protracted journey, however I’ve lastly arrived.”
Danielle Villasana for NPR
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Danielle Villasana for NPR
As cyclones grew extra intense due to local weather change, Pramila Giri left her village in India for a rising metropolis. Thought of a local weather refugee, she works onerous as a prepare dinner, sending cash dwelling to her household. She introduced along with her a ceremonial bowl and plate fabricated from bronze, placing rice pudding within the bowl and a salty lentil porridge on the plate for particular events and competition choices.
Smita Sharma for NPR
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Smita Sharma for NPR
Rosa Gonzalez, born in Guatemala, holds an indication with the phrase “Xib’nel” from the Okay’iche’ Mayan language she grew up talking — loosely translated as “the fright, the phobia.” Gonzalez says this phrase sums up how she felt in the course of the battle in her nation. She has no bodily keepsakes to remind her of her childhood dwelling however proudly speaks her language of Okay’iche’: It’s “elementary to who we’re.”
James Rodríguez for NPR
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James Rodríguez for NPR
Rosa Gonzalez, born in Guatemala, holds an indication with the phrase “Xib’nel” from the Okay’iche’ Mayan language she grew up talking — loosely translated as “the fright, the phobia.” Gonzalez says this phrase sums up how she felt in the course of the battle in her nation. She has no bodily keepsakes to remind her of her childhood dwelling however proudly speaks her language of Okay’iche’: It’s “elementary to who we’re.”
James Rodríguez for NPR
Throughout the Arabian peninsula, folks mild scented stones like incense. “You mild them on fireplace for scent,” says Nader Alareqi, who left Yemen due to the civil battle and now lives in Ecuador. When packing to go away in 2015 he introduced incense stones made by his grandmother with a combination of perfumes and scented leaves: “These are very particular stones made with love.”
Yolanda Escobar Jiménez for NPR
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Yolanda Escobar Jiménez for NPR
Momos are steamed or fried dumplings filled with minced meat or greens — a preferred dish in Abdul Kareem Bhat’s native Tibet. He fled after the failed rebellion in opposition to China in 1959. Now dwelling in Kashmir, Bhat says that serving the dish at his restaurant not solely connects him to his roots however has “introduced us nearer to our Kashmiri brothers.”
Showkat Nanda for NPR
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Showkat Nanda for NPR
“This passport jogs my memory of my previous life, touring throughout West Africa,” says Rebecca Maneh Nagbe, generally known as Mama Sckadee. She fled Liberia’s civil battle in 2003 and got here to a refugee camp in Nigeria however has been unable to acquire authorized standing to go away. Within the camp, she has raised her granddaughter, whose mom left the nation: “Angel has been my companion for 14 years. She is all I’ve.”
Ọbáṣọlá Bámigbólá for NPR
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Ọbáṣọlá Bámigbólá for NPR
“This passport jogs my memory of my previous life, touring throughout West Africa,” says Rebecca Maneh Nagbe, generally known as Mama Sckadee. She fled Liberia’s civil battle in 2003 and got here to a refugee camp in Nigeria however has been unable to acquire authorized standing to go away. Within the camp, she has raised her granddaughter, whose mom left the nation: “Angel has been my companion for 14 years. She is all I’ve.”
Ọbáṣọlá Bámigbólá for NPR
Further credit
Visuals edited by Ben de la Cruz, Pierre Kattar and Maxwell Posner. Textual content edited by Julia Simon and Marc Silver. Copy modifying by Pam Webster.
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