Yasmine Mustafa, Global Tastes 2026 NSC Award Honoree
“Bombs are dropping all around me. I’m eight years old, and I am absolutely terrified.”
So begins Yasmine Mustafa’s TEDx Talk, The Birth Lottery Does Not Define You. In it, she tells her unlikely immigrant story. When her mother chose to join her father on a business trip to the United States, no one expected Yasmine’s brother to arrive three months early.
As planned, her parents - now a party of three - returned to Kuwait. The baby’s American citizenship was barely an afterthought.
That changed just a month later when two men entered a bomb shelter looking for that baby. Those men were representatives from the US Embassy looking to evacuate all American citizens. Her brother’s citizenship served as a ticket for all eight members of Yasmine’s family to escape a war in Kuwait.
Arrival in the United States was just the beginning of a complicated journey with Philadelphia at its core. Though she started sitting in the back of classrooms taught in a language she didn’t understand, Yasmine and her family found their way. Her dad purchased a 7-Eleven franchise where Yasmine worked for many years as she made her way through school.
During the college admissions process, Yasmine learned her family had overstayed their refugee visas. Now, an undocumented immigrant, her college dreams suddenly felt out of reach. But Yasmine is not one to pout. She got to work, but it wasn’t easy.
“After high school, I took any job I could find that paid under the table, often juggling two or three hospitality jobs at once, scraping by on just $5 an hour. I had no power to speak up — not when bosses forced me to work double shifts, withheld my wages, sexually harassed me, or forced me to come in when I was sick.” - as written in The Philadelphia Citizen.
Yasmine launched an entrepreneurial career, starting three companies grounded in her own lived experiences. Along the way – 22 years after her arrival in this country, with the help of Michele Pistone and a legal clinic at Villanova University – Yasmine and her family became American citizens, providing the real and psychological safety she sought for so long.
A clear reflection of her own life, her current company, ROAR for Good, makes wearable duress buttons for workers — primarily women, many of them immigrants — in hotels and hospitals, so they can call for help when facing threats. ROAR’s work now protects seven million workers at over 300 businesses in 38 states. She hopes the company will be protecting over 30 million individuals by 2030.
A true depiction of the American Dream, Yasmine now has a complicated relationship with that idea. Having lived most of her life without the status that now protects her, she is too familiar with the fear that burdens so many in our community today. As she has stated clearly, “Immigrants enrich our culture and deserve dignity and protection.”
It shouldn’t have to be more complicated than that, but Yasmine recognizes it is. Many face dehumanization and discrimination today, something she experienced following 9/11. That’s why she continues to work for all those at risk, all those in danger, and all those who lack the power that status provides.
Nationalities Service Center is thrilled to honor Yasmine Mustafa with this year’s NSC Award, an award presented to “an immigrant who exemplifies the American Dream, or to a strong immigrant advocate.” She is a living embodiment of both, and we are grateful for the opportunity to shine a light on her good work and the amazing life she’s built in our city.
The NSC award is presented each year to an immigrant who exemplifies the American dream, or to a strong immigrant advocate. It will be presented at Global Tastes on May 7th at the University City Science Center. Join us to honor Yasmine, celebrate the contributions of immigrants and immigrant cultures, and raise funds for NSC’s vital support services.
