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After coming to the United States as a refugee, Hodan communicated with her family only through phone calls and WhatsApp for 13 years. Her mother, Safia, and her sisters, Seynab and Yagsir, were 8,000 miles away in eastern Ethiopia. In September 2024, their long separation finally ended. Thanks to your partnership with World Relief Chicagoland’s Immigration Legal Services team, Safia, Seynab, and Yagsir were able to join their sister and start a new chapter of life. Here is more about their story and how your
support made a difference.
The family’s journey began in the 1990s when Somalia’s civil war scattered hundreds of thousands of people across the region. Hodan ended up in a different refugee camp from her mom and sisters and didn’t know where they were. She resettled to Kansas City in 2011 and eventually tracked them down through someone who had lived in the same camp as them. After reconnecting, Hodan began the family reunification process through World Relief Nashville. While building a life in the U.S., she never gave up
on reuniting with her loved ones. She married, moved to Louisville, then to Chicago, and began raising four children, but always held on to the hope of bringing her family back together.
Meanwhile, her mom and sisters endured years in refugee camps and, later, as urban refugees in the city of Jijiga. The possibility of resettling in the U.S. was a lifeline for them, as the region remained gripped by hardship. Conflicts continued in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea, with famines and floods displacing another
million Somalis in 2023 alone.
Throughout this time, the program Hodan used to apply for their resettlement also faced repeated setbacks. Their case was denied, frozen, or delayed due to various policies, including the 2016 “Muslim Ban” that temporarily halted refugee resettlement from several Muslim-majority countries. Hodan’s family traveled at least seven times within Ethiopia to attend interviews and undergo DNA testing, sometimes enduring 12-hour bus rides to the capital city. Back in the U.S., Hodan and her husband received updates about the case from staff at World Relief Chicagoland, who tracked its progress and mediated with the State Department.
“There were many times we lost hope and forgot about the process,” said Yagsir. “So when we finally got the news about our flight [to the U.S.], it was a surprise. I remember IOM called us around 10 a.m. that day, telling us we would go to a hotel in Addis for two weeks, do orientations and health screenings, and then fly to the U.S. It felt like a dream. We were happy, but it was hard to say goodbye to our friends and family.”
Today, Safia, Seynab, and Yagsir are adjusting to their new season and learning to navigate life in Chicago. They’ve moved into an apartment, received vital documents, and are getting employment and language support. Though they carry the weight of their past experiences and the road ahead is long, your partnership has helped begin to heal the wounds of their long separation and laid the foundation for lasting change. Thank you for being a part of ending over 13 years of separation for this family!