When editorial photographer Angie Smith noticed that a large refugee community had settled in Boise, Idaho, she was intrigued.
"How [did] they [end] up in Idaho of all places?" she said to Business Insider. A natural storyteller, Smith was confident that there was a unique narrative to be told about these individuals, one that would be impactful both visually and socially.
After becoming fast friends with her first subject, Rita, a 28-year-old from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Smith was introduced to more Congolese families who were willing to pose for her camera and tell her their stories.
From there, her project expanded, and she was able to gain access to other refugee communities in neighboring areas. Soon after, she was given a grant by the city of Boise for a large-scale, outdoor exhibition of the work, and she's currently raising the rest of the needed funds for the exhibition via her Kickstarter.
Although she's already reached her Kickstarter goal, Smith has bigger plans. "Additional funding will go towards the expansion of this project," she said. "I want to be shooting short films on individual refugees' stories and start traveling to other resettlement cities throughout the US."
Ahead, eight images and the stories she's gathered for her upcoming exhibition, "Stronger Shines the Light Inside".
SEE ALSO: Go inside the beautiful home of a former Goldman Sachs engineer-turned-startup-founder
Patrick and Derek Seale Bakwa
Before coming to the US at the age of six, brothers Patrick and Derek Seale Bakwa grieved the death of their parents in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As children, they were left to fend for themselves in Kinshasa. When they were granted refugee status, they moved to Boise, but they were neglected and abused by their foster family and were homeless for two years in high school.
In 2012, they were adopted by a couple that ministers the New Heart Baptist Church in Boise. Here, they stand in front of their adoptive parents' home. They now go by their adopted family's last name, Seale.
Rita Thara
Rita Thara is also a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo and has lived in Boise for three years. Her mother, Veronique, is the cousin of Mobutu Sese Seko, the former military dictator of Zaire. When civil war broke out in 1997, they were forced to flee Kinshasa, and Rita's father was shot and killed by militia.
Rita and Veronique lived as refugees in the Central African Republic for over a decade, amidst civil war and ongoing hardship, while they applied for refugee status through the UN. After years of interviews and waiting, they came to Boise, where Rita started a clothing business called Thara Fashion.
Sar Ba Bi
Sar Ba Bi is a refugee from Burma who moved to Idaho five years ago. She met her husband, a refugee from Somalia, when she was a junior in high school. They fell in love despite the fact that they were both just learning English, the only language they could communicate in.
They're now married and together have started a business called Umoja Na Uhuru World Farm, selling their own produce at the Boise Saturday Market. Sar Ba Bi comes from a long line of cooks, and her mother owned a restaurant in the refugee camp they lived in.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider