It all began at a summer soccer camp. ​Among the many youths I was coaching, I noticed a young boy  who seemed unusually reserved, while his sisters sometimes cried during the games. Later that day, I learned that they were refugees who had recently fled Afghanistan.​ At school he faced serious bullying and struggled to navigate unfamiliar cultural expectations. While still carrying the trauma of leaving everything behind, he faced the challenge of trying to find belonging in a community that did not yet understand him. 

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For many of them, escaping conflict was only the beginning.

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After the camp ended, I reached out to tutor him so he could catch up in school, learning about the everyday challenges he faced. But his story was not unique. As I continued working with more refugee youth, I began to see the same pattern again and again. While resettlement agencies and schools provide critical legal or academic support, many students still lack spaces where they feel socially and emotionally supported. What he and his sisters needed most was not test preparation or paperwork, but a welcoming community where they could truly belong.

 

That is why I founded Tulip’s Promise, an initiative dedicated to supporting the social-emotional wellbeing of refugees and global youth. The name reflects the tulip, Afghanistan’s national flower, symbolizing the resilience of the refugee families.​

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What began with one refugee youth’s story now reaches more than 4,000 English Language Learners.

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But our founding story is about more than one person’s experience or one nationality. Today, Tulip’s Promise is a global youth-led movement, partnering with eighteen resettlement organizations and sharing resources with twelve school districts, with two officially implementing the Welcome Handbook for all future students. Our work continues to evolve and expand to support refugee and new immigrant youths around the world.

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We believe in — and continue working toward — the day when every refugee and global youth has the resources and a supportive community they need to belong and thrive.

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That is our promise.

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- Roselyn Bi