When Fartun was just 15 years old, she came to the U.S. as a refugee from Somalia. Soon after settling in Minnesota, she realized that there was a large population of Somali immigrants in her community that were looking for ways to connect to their new home. That's when she started the Somali American Women Action Center, with the intention to uplift, protect and educate refugee women to have successful futures. She made a post on Nextdoor looking for an instructor who could help her start a sewing club for the women in her community and met Leslie Mallery, an instructor who vowed to always use, "Nextdoor for good."