Cities throughout the world celebrated World Refugee Day over one weekend in mid-June. …We tell the stories of 14 of them – Iraqi, Burmese, Bhutanese, Iranian and Somali – who now live and make ends meet in Chicago.

“Everyone makes their own religion,” says Sadeq Khatami, an Iranian refugee who fled his homeland with his wife, Farzaha, and daughter Lale, after the family converted to Baha’i.

Khatami weaves two stories while he speaks of his quick exit: one that he tells his parents, of being one of the few Iranians to win a green card to the United States. The other story, Khatami’s reality, is about his search for religious freedom and struggles with negotiating a new culture in the United States.

Lia sees a way through it. She always has. “I’m free to come and go to every state,” she says. “When in camp, just live in the camp. Some lady told me, ‘have you been to Bangkok?’ I just heard about Bangkok, but never been because no paper to go. But now, free to travel, free to visit.”

The idea of not celebrating in the camps, though, was unheard of. “We had to celebrate in the camps no matter how hard it was because the children looked forward to it,” Yashoda Dulal reminisces.

After 18 years living in a refugee camp in Burma, Phe Tu Lun brought his wife and six children to the United States to escape the violence and create a new life. In Chicago, Phe Tu Lun is able to provide for his family in ways he’s always dreamed of.

After being expelled from his native Bhutan at 18, Hasta Bhattarai spent the first 16 years of his adult life in a refugee camp with no concrete hopes for the future. Now that he’s in Chicago, the possibilities seem endless.

The 64-year-old Bhutanese refugee uses the computer to connect with his Nepali culture. Even though Darnal can’t read or write in either Bhutanese or English, his 8-year-old grandson Divas taught him how to find Nepali films and music on YouTube.com.