Syria

"How did they have the courage and strength to run from the bombs, through the cities and the snipers and the rebels and Assad’s army and ISIS to this hopeless barren potato field?"

I have missed three years of their lives. I will never get them back.

Amina is one of countless indomitable refugee mothers in the world

My husband told me to go to Germany with our youngest son because I am a math teacher and can speak English, and because I am strong.

"I like being in school again..."

Our life was very good. We were very comfortable and happy.

ISIS began invading our village on the first day of the revolution.

The Boat was Sinking

I’m Worried about My Family

I came from Syria from the city of Aleppo. I was a math teacher in Aleppo’s high schools.

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.

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.

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.

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

Rushte had turned her paper over and drawn what was in her heart and in her head...such a disconnect to the smile on her face!

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