How refugees have helped save these midwestern cities: ‘That’s really something we celebrate’

In places like Dayton, Ohio, and Indianapolis, blighted neighborhoods and economies have been transformed

At a time in life when many are winding down, Gunash Akhmedova, aged 65, fulfilled a lifelong dream of opening her first business.

A member of the Ahiska, or Meskhetian, Turk community who came to the US as a refugee from western Russia in 2005, Akhmedova opened Gunash's Mediterranean Cusine two years ago on the site of a converted freight house alongside other international food vendors in a formerly industrial corner of Dayton, Ohio.