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Their stories help me understand what is it that leads a person to abandon home, family and friends, to leave behind culture and country, to uproot oneself from everything that has contributed to one’s identity, and to travel a road paved with uncertainty, danger, and possible death to a foreign place where there is no friend. Their stories help me understand the motivating power of hope and resilience.

Winter was approaching and the only explanation I can fathom for why these men were treated like they were less than animals is because people felt threatened by their presence and perceived them to be an invincible, menacing force. In reality, men are vulnerable precisely because we perceive them to be invincible.

". . .the people inside this remarkable volume of exquisite photography and stories of resilience will teach you that the surest way to draw humans together begins with the words "I want to tell you my story . . ."

No one country can solve the migration crisis alone. No single organization can relieve the human suffering taking place. However, linked together, united and connected, we are stronger than the sum of our parts. Common solutions based on reaching out and pulling in will not only save untold lives, but it will define our success as individuals, and our future as a human family.

Our camera has one lens, our clipboard one pen, and as we sit knee to knee and look into that one person’s eyes and focus for that moment in time on that one story there is no question that for him or her our efforts mean everything.

The skilled and talented refugees we've met have proven time and again that they are ready, able, and willing to work hard, to contribute to the communities where they live, and to make a life for themselves and their families. They are good people who've often come from successful lives and careers in their home countries.

Throughout their winter semester at Brigham Young University in Utah, USA, graduate students in the department of Communications devoted their studies to analyzing the social media reach and strengthening the efficiency and impact of the work we are doing at Their Story is Our Story.

TSOS is honored and grateful to have been asked by the General Relief Society Presidency of the LDS Church to contribute to this important international conference.

This is the story of father and son refugees, Akhtar and Kamil, and their boss Thomas Eichhorn, owner of a stone quarry in Germany. This a day in their life - two educated and highly-skilled refugees, making a successful life in Germany and a business owner having the vision and compassion to give them that chance.

"Their world was shattered, and the pieces are being sprinkled like some new mosaic across ours. It is up to each one of us to determine what our new shared world picture will look like.... Whatever we decide, their future is our future. Their story is our story."