ERITREA: Moving Testimony of a Refugee

Source: Jubilee Campaign, July 31, 2016

“Very recently I had a trying time in my life,” [explained Hanna Petros Solomon in a June 22 presentation]. “No, I didn’t have to dodge bullets to cross another border, I had to write my transfer essay to university. In order to understand who you are as a person, universities ask you to describe the journey that brought you to them. I wrote what I thought was an excellent essay about why I came to America, and handed it to my professor who was helping me with the process. He told me that the essay spoke more about my country and the state of dictatorship than it did my own experiences, it had to be personal.

“In an effort to apply his advice, I changed every ‘we’ pronoun to ‘I,’ and suddenly the words on paper became too personal, painful even.”

» Read Hanna Petros Solomon’s story to learn more about the situation in Eritrea and how it has affected lives, or watch this recording of her testimony. Another version (a bit more polished) is from 2015.

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