My father was a shoemaker. All through the springtime of his life he worked tirelessly day and night to make enough money to provide his family with food and a roof over their heads. He lived a very simple life and gave up everything for us to see our happiness, which meant everything to him.

One year ago my biggest surprise came true. After four and a half years of waiting for resettlement in Indonesia, the United States accepted me as a refugee. I felt I was in a dream. I was in shock and wondering if the United States and International Organization of Migration had made a mistake. I had waited for this moment for a long time and now it was finally here.

When Roshan’s collaboration with Elite Open School started in August 2019, Faiza was part of our first cohort of students. Her journey has been nothing short ofWhen I first left my country I did not think about the fact that I will be called a “refugee.” I was too worried about our safety as my mind played out all of the scenarios of things that could go wrong. We may get caught and deported, or worse, end up in jail. With my two younger siblings and mother, none of whom speak any language other than our own, I could feel the weight of responsibility on my shoulders. inspiring.

When Roshan’s collaboration with Elite Open School started in August 2019, Faiza was part of our first cohort of students. Her journey has been nothing short of inspiring.

In 2019, Roshan launched our Paving Access to Higher Education (PATH) initiative. By forming partnerships with Sampoerna University and providing various forms of support to candidates, our initiative seeks to facilitate the enrollment and success of refugees in university while they wait for resettlement.

In line with our efforts to create a safe, healing and learning environment, Roshan has been working to integrate Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) into our curriculum and teaching. SEL involves the development of emotional self-regulation, positive relationship-building, goal-setting, and encouraging other healthy behaviors. We believe that SEL will better equip our students to deal with life’s challenges, helping them to heal and become more resilient.

As a Roshan Roast apprentice, Mustafa is developing his professional skills as he manages the day-to-day operations, sales, and marketing of Roshan Roast through both online and offline channels. He is also finding his network growing as he meets and works with people from different cultural and vocational backgrounds.

A dream so far away it once seemed impossible to achieve. Many refugees in Indonesia have been isolated from formal education for many long years, but 40 students now have the opportunity to earn their General Education Diploma (GED), a certificate equivalent to a U.S. high school diploma through Roshan’s GED Support Program.

Being a woman comes with gifts, but also challenges, especially if one is living with many limitations. Early on, many refugee girls at Roshan had regular classes but socializing, sports, and other activities were nonexistent for most of them. The Roshan “Girls Gang” (GG) was created by young girls and women at Roshan as a safe environment to combat isolation, support one another, build trusting friendships, and develop leadership skills.

Several years ago, as a university student in Afghanistan, Musa had a dream: to finish his education so that he could work and serve his country. He was in the middle of pursuing a Science degree when the refugee crisis was beginning to gain momentum. Many of his friends and peers were fleeing to seek safety and asylum elsewhere. “At the time, I didn’t want to become a refugee,” he says. But by 2012, out of the 26 people who had been in his high school graduating class, Musa was only one of two who had stayed.

It all started with a book. While teaching at a Montessori school in Jakarta, Ariane had come across the writings of an Indonesian traveler who spent three years in Afghanistan. She was surprised to learn that there was so much more to Afghanistan than what was being portrayed on the news. She was very intrigued and soon found herself dreaming about her own journey to the region.

In the early 2000s, a fresh graduate from the University of Southampton in the U.K. decided to set off on a solo journey to Asia. Having just finished her degree in European Studies, she wasn’t quite sure what to do next -- so she packed her bags and headed south. “I always said that I didn’t want to be a teacher when I was younger,” Anneke says. But somewhere between Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia, she realized what she wanted to do was teach.

Maryam and Ahmed were only eight and seven years old when they left their home country of Yemen in 2015. Born to a Yemeni father and a Somali mother, the pair of siblings spoke only Arabic when their family first arrived in Indonesia. 

It was in July 2013 that Armin’s parents told him they were leaving Iran. As a young boy just about to turn 11, he was excited: this would be his first trip outside of his home country. The family was heading to Australia. At the time, he didn’t realize that they would be embarking on this journey as asylum-seekers, hoping to take refuge in another country.