Announcement
Refugees bring stories of resilience and strength to their resettled country and so much more than they can carry: hopes and dreams, experiences and talents, traditions and heritage. Amira Kherrallah, originally from Central African Republic, brought all of this with her to the U.S. after she was forced to flee her home due to the outbreak of violence that began in 2013, a conflict that displaced more than 640,000 people to flee the country in search for safety. Amira was left separated from her family to live in a refugee camp in Chad.
In 2019, Amira resettled to the United States by herself through the Refugee Admissions Program. With her, she brought ambitions of a successful life and career. Amira had always been fascinated by marketing and business, making it her mission to find a job that could meet her expectations. She found out early on that this would not be easy, many businesses offered her jobs that were good, but not up to the standard she had set for herself. Amira waited for months until she finally got a job in digital marketing, a moment she remembers feeling great power knowing she made the right decision for herself.
Amira Kherrallah has been a trailblazer in her community, taking her passions and using them to benefit the people around her through her non-profit, PreventHer, and her new start-up business.
Photo: Mikaela Herman/IRC
In 2020, just a year after coming to the U.S., Amira won Miss Africa Utah. Through this process, she began her non-profit, PreventHer, which works to raise awareness and educate refugee women living in Utah about breast cancer. PreventHer is the fulfillment of Amira’s passion to make a change in her community and a result of seeing her mother’s battle growing up: “As a child, I watched my mother fight breast cancer until her last day,” said Amira.
Where she grew up, people did not have access to the right care, nor did they treat forms of cancer in the same way as western medicine. “It cost way too much money for my family to pay for a mammogram in Africa. When I came to the United States, I could not believe all of the free resources women have,” Amira said. Knowing this gap in resources and ready access, Amira knew it was important for refugee communities in Utah to have easy access to broader education on breast cancer awareness and services. “I want to be a bridge for my community, connecting them to the resources I know are important,” Amira said.
Another way Amira bridges service gaps for her community is through her new small business concept. In the past year, she began starting a small digital marketing and communications business to solve a problem: refugees and new Americans starting a business with no digital background. Her goal is to start up websites, social media, and other content for her refugee neighbors. “I have the skills, why not use these skills to help my community,” said Amira.
Digital marketing is one of Amira’s biggest passions, but even more so, serving people and being useful has brought her the most joy and success. This is how she was able to stay focused on contributing to her community and to individual lives. “I could not have done this if I was not patient. Love what you do, and do what you love,” said Amira. She, like so many others who have come from refugee backgrounds, has shown just how much refugees bring with them to their new communities.
Since 2019, Amira has worked hard to achieve her dreams in Utah.
Photo: Mikaela Herman/IRC
We celebrated World Refugee Day and all that refugee families and individuals bring to their new homes. Learn how you can support newly arriving refugees, like Amira once was, by visiting Rescue.org/SupportSLC.