The Seeds of Dreams
Words By Amin, Thege Mungu, Naomie Ndongala Okito, Nasrin Soltan, Art By Hailey Renee Brown
A Community Feature with Lamp Ladder LifeboatLamp Lifeboat Ladder is a global refugee resettlement program that supports survivors of torture, sexual violence, and trauma who have been forced to flee their homeland. They provide protection and holistic accompaniment to survivors, and work with them to identify and address their needs—this may be medical care, safe housing, access to education, or therapeutic support. Lamp Lifeboat…
Flaming fiddles, it looks like there’s a roadblock here! If you’d like to finish reading this piece, please
buy a subscription—you’ll get access to the entire online archive of
F(r)iction.
Amin, Thege Mungu, Naomie Ndongala Okito, Nasrin Soltan
Amin is an award-winning Iraqi artist living in Jordan. He has hemophilia. As a refugee, he has no access to medication to control his disease. Because it is dangerous for him to be outside, he spends his days at home studying, writing, and painting. As an artist, he uses his distinct view of suffering in the world to produce portraits of people who are often invisible. His goal is to create art that will increase visibility and lead to greater protection of those most at risk.
Thege Mungu is a writer who comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo and is now living in Canada. She likes to write stories about her country and hopes to become a social worker who can help refugees and survivors. She enjoys reading a variety of books about culture.
Naomie is 21 years old and comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo. She loves writing poems, children, and food. Her dream is to become a nurse.
Nasrin is from Afghanistan. She is a Zumba- dance instructor and has been writing for a year. The art of writing formed within her because of migration and crossing borders to find a lost identity and a place to call her home.
Hailey Renee Brown
Hailey Renee Brown (Ren) is a professional illustrator born and raised in Mid-Michigan. A former field biologist, they moved across the country from Michigan to Pennsylvania, also moving from science to commercial art. A professionally trained artist, they attended the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in Dover, NJ, where they were selected as the recipient of the 2017 Norman Maurer Memorial Award as well as the 2019 Joe Kubert Jumpstart Project. They have since worked for a variety of clients from Dark Horse Comics and Dynamite Entertainment to the Brink Literacy Project.
