00:06The night of the election I stayed up until 3 o'clock in the morning and the results were not
00:11coming in so I kept flipping channels I want to sleep but I can't want to sleep because I want
00:15to know. We were actually like on the phone with each other texting each other in the middle of the
00:19night. It was just like really? Did he really win? In the morning when I got up and I see
00:27that
00:29I was devastated. I don't even know what I'm feeling anymore like it's kind of empty feeling
00:33where like you're sad. I tell my children not to listen to all this negativity they hear from
00:43outside but every time they came home my kids I had something to ask. My son said mom we hear
00:51that
00:51if Donald Trump become president he's going to take back refugees so does that mean that he's
00:56going to take you and dad away from us. You know it just breaks my heart.
01:07My family is originally from Somalia. I was born in Kenya as a refugee and from Somalia civil war to
01:14Kenya refugee camp to the US to becoming nationalized this last year. I ended up in Syracuse as a refugee
01:22from Ethiopia. My mom was left behind with my father along with the two younger brothers and
01:28sisters and they got accepted by Great Britain. My uncle has been in process for 10 years since 2006
01:36until now waiting for one day to be resettled and all of a sudden a president says no Muslim refugee
01:44are
01:45allowed. Ten years stuck in that camp and things are just getting worse. They're afraid for their
01:51life. With him winning the negativity wins and that's going to spread. I ran into a couple of
02:00people here and their grocery store where people are like move you know go back to your country or
02:05why do you look like that why do you dress like that. I believe that if I have to take
02:11off my
02:11headscarf for my safety that's a sign of weakness and I'm not weak. I don't think Donald Trump won I
02:19think the hatred the racism within our country won. There is a lot of people who have voice but are
02:30not
02:30being heard and that's where I come in. My role at RISE which is refugee immigrant self-empowerment
02:38is to help people find jobs and do immigration work. I'll go to court with them if it's a school,
02:44hospital, everywhere you name it. I work at the mosque. I work with interfaith resettlement agencies.
02:51I also volunteer to teach adult beginning English classes. I have over 50 students in one class
02:57and I'm actually part-time student at Syracuse University majoring in international relations
03:03and my dream is to work in United Nations one day. This is like the kind of opportunity that we
03:10always hoped for and I know that I wouldn't have been attending SU as a junior year. Two of my
03:15sisters
03:15are also attending college. Fatima is now on the national spelling bee. I got a call from back home. Oh
03:24yes.
03:24The negative message traveled so far. Most of the time they don't have TV in the camps so they would
03:30hear it from the radio and how the United States is electing a new president and this president is
03:36saying a lot of negativities towards Muslims. My mom calls me all the time and my dad they're like
03:42are you safe over there? You should move over here or you should move to Canada and I'm like no
03:46I'm fine.
03:50Syracuse is full of peaceful people even though we have one or two here you know crazy people
03:56running around we have those everywhere there's no perfect place on earth. I think my home here
04:02in Syracuse is just better for me. It's an opportunity to teach you know to at least get to know
04:11me
04:11after that judge me and all you want but give me a chance. Their brain has been filled with so
04:18much
04:18negative image and negative information from the social media but they have not actually met with
04:24the live person like a refugee like you a refugee like me. Let's just share a cup of coffee. Ask
04:30me where
04:31I'm from let's just move forward. She's from Utah. How can we fix those negative message by spreading the
04:39word of peace and love and unity.
