Refugee Story

Hassan asks: "In times of war, are we in control of our destiny?"

Kamil was born a refugee, as was his father, Akhtar. His Palestinian grandparents fled to Syria in the late 1940’s and raised their family in Yarmouk, a thriving, almost exclusively Palestinian suburb of Damascus.

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.

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.

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

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

Amina & her son are now in their third camp. Intellect on hold, school on hold.