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STORY UPDATE: Akhtar is an expert craftsman in marble and granite. His life's work. All gone.

I am from Afghanistan and I am 18 years old. I want to tell my story of my journey to Europe.

They live in uncertainty, but are remarkably resilient and cheerful in bad conditions. They hold up the best they can, and cling to the most important things - loved ones, faith, and hope.

We had an 8-year-old daughter, which the Taliban came and kidnapped from in front of our house.

Dr. Abdul Nasser Kaadan, of Aleppo Syria, is a highly regarded physician and scholar. But his honors, credentials, and vital work could not keep him safe in his home country.

My name is Baraat and I am here in this camp with my wife and three kids. We left our country seeking a better place, and not as the helpless refugees we are now.

James has survived two bombings, a stabbing, the murder of his small son and gunmen opening fire at his front door. He and his wife and two surviving children hope to find peace and security in Europe. They have been in camps in Greece since April, 2016.

I don't want to ever go back to the sea.

Ahmed was shot twice by police as he crossed borders with his children.

Ellin met some local refugees at a gathering in August 2016, and now helps them practice English weekly at their family home.

In 2015, 10,000 vulnerable minors disappeared in the overwhelming immensity of the refugee humanitarian crisis.

Lisa Campbell, Director of Operations for NPO "Do Your Part," doesn't run a charity, she runs a small self-governing, self-reliant community.

"I am struck by what it must have represented to the man, woman, or child who wrapped themselves in these life vests and pushed off from their home continent."

"I got attacked two times. The first attack was normal. A rocket just came and went in one window and came out another. Then I was leaving one province and going to another province, I got attacked there by an RPG."

Ghazal wishes she could go to school, but now spends her time staying fit and sharing the one bicycle with the other kids in her camp.

Omed was beat up and picked on because he is from a tribe discriminated against by terrorists, and because his sister works and his mother was a teacher.

​The East African Refugee Goat Project, which leases goats to large companies for an eco-friendly form of weed control, creates jobs for refugees who help tend the goats.

His musical notoriety brought condemnation from ISIS, which banned western music. So they torched his piano.

For most, running water was a common convenience that was taken for granted.

These people have all waited and worried and waited for 12 months or more for this day.