When Sasha was eight years old, she arrived in the United States from war-torn Sierra Leone to be reunited with her mother, who had left her with a sister when Sasha was just six months old.
“It was really hard because I never saw her as my mom so I called her aunt all the time,” Sasha said. “Like she was my aunt, she wasn’t my mom really.”
Moving to the U.S. did not mean an end to the instability that had characterized her earlier years. The family moved 12 times, as Sasha recalls, first living in Pennsylvania, then Texas, and continuously moving from then on. Sometimes, Sasha’s mother could not afford to pay rent, and the family was homeless.
Speaking with Diverse following a briefing on youth homelessness organized by a coalition of organizations including Civic Enterprises, SchoolHouse Connection, America’s College Promise and the Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness on Capitol Hill on Monday, Sasha discussed some of the challenges she overcame on her path to a college degree.
While her mother was out of the home working to provide for Sasha and her siblings, as the eldest, Sasha stepped in to take care of her younger siblings. At times, school fell by the wayside amid all her familial responsibilities. Her living situation in Sierra Leone had also precluded her from participating in any form of early childhood education.
“I never thought about going to college just because I had a hard time coming from a background with no childhood education,” Sasha said. “It is so hard becoming American with kids teasing you because you can’t read, you can’t write, you can’t spell.”
