From Congo to America: Florence and Pascal experience hope across borders
Their paths converged in a refugee camp, where kindness became friendship and friendship grew into love. Now resettled in the United States right before the suspensions of the US Refugee Admissions Program, they share a life marked by hope and deep gratitude
By Jessica Galván
World Relief
“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
In her famous TED Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story,” author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie challenges us to expand our understanding of the world by embracing diverse perspectives and rejecting one-dimensional narratives. Today, with more than 122 million people displaced globally, it’s easy to reduce this crisis to statistics but behind every number is a person, a name, a story.
These are not just refugee statistics. These are refugee stories.
Refugee stories like those of Florence and Pascal. Their lives began on opposite sides of a continent — hers in Rwanda, his in Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their journeys into displacement were as distinct as their homelands. Each endured unimaginable loss and the long road of rebuilding after forced migration. But their paths converged in a refugee camp, where kindness became friendship and friendship grew into love. Now resettled in the United States right before the suspensions of the US Refugee Admissions Program, they share a life marked by hope and deep gratitude.
Florence was only eight years old when her parents were kidnapped over a land dispute and survived. Fearing that it would happen again, Florence and her family fled Rwanda after her parents returned. That moment changed her life forever. Alongside her six siblings, Florence grew up in a refugee camp in Malawi — home to over 1,000 people — where her parents had sought safety. It was there, surrounded by instability and uncertainty, that she learned to survive.
She spent much of her youth working to support her family by running a small shop inside the camp selling anything she could find. One afternoon in 2016, her path crossed with Pascal when he entered her shop.
“He was always kind. He didn’t have much, but we helped each other,” Florence recalled.
She would offer him food when he couldn’t pay. He came often — sometimes to buy something, sometimes just to talk. Over time, the two became close. “He became my best friend,” Florence said. They eventually married in a simple court ceremony and began building a life together inside the camp.
In 2018, Florence’s case was approved by the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, for resettlement, and she made a bold request: Pascal must be included. “We could not be
