00:00As an experienced refugee, you know, it's nothing, you never really want to hear the
00:07words, get out.
00:09What you want to hear is somebody giving a hand to help, you know.
00:13We got to Moscow and then we got on a plane and all of that was very new to me,
00:17like a
00:17train was new, the plane was new, I had Coca-Cola for the first time, I mean like the entire
00:23experience was very new.
00:24You'd think that every year there's been progress but then you find, you know, it's
00:29actually not the case and so I just felt that I, as a refugee, you know, I wasn't really
00:39in a position to turn around to all these people and say don't come because, you know, coming
00:45to England and being part of multicultural Britain and, you know, being able to sort of give back
00:53it's been, you know, I've become a poster child for it, I guess.
01:00The issue of refugees is very close to my heart.
01:04I am a refugee.
01:06We came to the United States in 1948 after the Communists took over Czechoslovakia and my
01:14father used to say on a regular basis when we arrived that people would say, I'm so sorry
01:20that your country's been taken over by a terrible system, you're welcome here, what can we do
01:26to help you and when will you become a citizen?
01:29And he said that is what made America so different.
01:32And then like overnight in 1969 there was a revolution in Somalia and within, I would
01:37say a month, people literally were being either executed or arrested.
01:42So overnight, my life was totally transformed from an ambassador's daughter to a refugee.
01:51So I've always tried to really make people understand what refugees are, you know, because
01:57I am one.
01:58So I did have awareness of this hardship and struggle and there were times, incidents that,
02:04you know, where I was definitely reminded, oh yes, you're a Jew and, you know, you're different.
02:10When my mom was pregnant, you know, all these people just gave her maternity clothing because
02:15we really, we really had like nothing and it was really, really nice, you know, people
02:21gave us plates, people gave us forks, people gave us, you know, furniture.
02:26And I think about that a lot, I think about, you know, what my parents left and what their
02:35sacrifices were and I feel like they're so happy that they're here.
