Welcome to Litsy!

The incredible life story of the first deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School and her amazing journey from isolation to the world stage. Haben Girma faced impossible odds the moment she was born. The daughter of an Eritrean refugee who fled her home country at the age of sixteen, Haben was born deaf-blind. She cannot see, and can only hear at the highest frequency. She relies on a braille keyboard to communicate with others, a piece of technology she and a friend designed when other options proved too exhausting or too limiting. But from a place of struggle, Haben found strength, and a desire not to overcome her disability, but to use it to her benefit, and for the benefit of others. HABEN'S STORY takes readers from the Girma family home in the Italian-inspired Eritrean city of Asmara, to the creaky glaciers of Alaska, to the Blue Room of the White House. We follow Haben as she discovers community, learning, personal growth, and connection -- as well as independence. Throughout her journey, Haben tackles the most divisive issues of our time: immigration, race, gender, and disability. She is a daughter of refugees in a country where refugees are stigmatized, a black woman in a country still struggling with racism and sexism, and a Deafblind person in a world designed for the able-bodied. Full of fantastic adventures from around the world and keen insights on how to build connections despite the differences that try to divide us, HABEN'S STORY is the incredible memoir of one woman's determined quest to find the keys to connect and bring the world together.