Author: Sophia Michelen

A global health and humanitarian professional, Sophia Michelen’s experience in international policy, advocacy, research and communication spans the world working with nonprofits, NGOs, and international governments. Currently committed to children’s rights, Sophia has worked in emergency relief in the Middle East, on health-system strengthening projects for girls in East Africa, and created advocacy and communication programs for women in Latin America. Her passion for improving communities through women and girls’ empowerment has stemmed from childhood. She consistently advocates for inclusive sustainable change and impact through education, advocacy, and emergency relief via large-scale community mobilization and campaigns. To complement her work, Sophia is a keen women and children's rights activist, writer, and photojournalist.
They Don't Teach You How to Grieve as a First-Generation, Only-Child American

They Don’t Teach You How to Grieve as a First-Generation, Only-Child American

As the only child, only daughter to immigrant parents coming from strong Latin and Middle Eastern cultures, I was taught many things of life in this “new” world. COVID-19 showed me that I was never formally taught one constant emotion amongst all of humanity: grief.

Just when I start to learn to process one traumatic event, another hits, and another, and the next—all while grieving a nation I love and a democracy my parents sacrificed to attain.