Refugee Story

Refugee Child Painting
Afghanistan

I am a Refugee Child

We hope for peace, friendship, good behavior and good treatment. And my wish is peace.
Faroosh Family
Afghanistan

If Peace Returns, We Will Go Back

If peace returns to Afghanistan one day, we will definitely go back. I had a peaceful and good life there. I had a house and a job.
Hassan From You Tube
Syria

"Are We in Control of Our Destiny?"

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

KAMIL

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.
Ahktar Crying
Syria

AKHTAR

STORY UPDATE: Akhtar is an expert craftsman in marble and granite. His life's work. All gone.
Roksana1
Afghanistan

My Name is Roksana

I am from Afghanistan and I am 18 years old. I want to tell my story of my journey to Europe.
LRSFSM59
Afghanistan

The Taliban Kidnapped Our Daughter

We had an 8-year-old daughter, which the Taliban came and kidnapped from in front of our house.
Dr  Abdul Nasser Kaadan Cu Copy
Syria

Abdul Nasser

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.
Baratt
Afghanistan

BARAAT

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.
Zarrin drawing by Elizabeth Benson Thayer
Zarrin  ·  Afghanistan

The Journey: The Sea Was Like a Storm

I don't want to ever go back to the sea.
Aeham Smiling
Aeham  ·  Syria

Our Lives Before: The Piano Man of Yarmouk

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

Amina

Amina & her son are now in their third camp. Intellect on hold, school on hold.
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What would you do if you had to leave everything behind?

By the end of 2025, more than 117.8 million people worldwide had been forcibly displaced by war, persecution, or human rights abuses — and 45 million of them are children.

They arrive in refugee camps and countries seeking safety and carrying little: legal papers, if they're lucky. A backpack. A child's hand in theirs.

What they carry that we can't see is heavier: fractured families, homes they'll never return to, professions they loved, friends and relatives they may never see again.

In a climate where immigrant stories are often ignored or twisted, we believe stories are a form of justice. When someone shares what they survived, they reclaim their voice. When we amplify it through film, photography, and advocacy, the world listens. Hearts soften. Policy begins to shift.

Because when a lawmaker sees a person instead of a statistic, and a neighbor understands instead of fears, rebuilding becomes possible.

Your support helps us share these stories where they matter most.

— Kristen Smith Dayley, Executive Director, Their Story is Our Story

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