Athens, GreeceFahim left Afghanistan on January 1, 2015, and traveled with a smuggler through Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, then Greece. When I asked about the trip, he just kept repeating

Athens, Greece“I lived in Kabul. I have a big family - mother, father, four brothers and two sisters; one sister is in Norway. I left Afghanistan because I was a famous player and

We met Fahim the first evening we arrived in Athens. He is a professional soccer player, and used to play for the national team in Afghanistan. That was before he started getting

Raghad is developing the idea of Mozaic Kitchen, an opportunity for refugees to earn money by preparing and selling their specialty dishes at bazaars and through catering

Raghad Bushnaq has been helping people in need in informal ways for at least a dozen years, but when refugees started arriving in the Washington D.C. area in large numbers in April 2016

I was raised in a family where my father would refuse to sit at the dining table unless we have some needy person sitting with us. Even if there was nobody, he would call the guard outside

In Syria, Mother’s Day is on March 21st; it was two days before I met with Raghad in her home for this interview. She was telling me that she had received so many happy mother’s day messages from refugees.

Raghad was born and raised in Damascus, Syria. She studied agricultural engineering in college and worked with bees and honey production.

Often, Raghad drives the truck herself picking up donated furniture to furnish an apartment for a newly arriving refugee family. She cleans, sorts, unpacks, organizes

Raghad Bushnaq has been helping people in need in informal ways for at least a dozen years, but when refugees started arriving in the Washington D.C. area in large numbers in April 2016

“I’m very happy, very very happy,” Nader tells me when I ask him what it feels like to make his first wedding dress in the US. “If you take a blood test from me, you’ll

The wedding dress in slightly off white lace with floral motifs and tiny beads - for one, a symbol of love; for another, a chance to stitch a new life.

Omama and I chatted after she had changed back into jeans and a denim jacket; I wanted to know, of course, how she met her fiance. She giggles and tells me

Omama, 23, inched her way from the bedroom wearing her wedding dress for the first time. She posed in the living room light, turning this way and that, peering

Nader and his family are originally from Homs, Syria. Nader had a lingerie business in Homs since 1995; he owned a factory that employed over 150 people.

I first met Nader, 42, when KindWorks, a nonprofit I help lead, organized a welcome dinner for recently arrived refugees. Nader and his wife Rasha, 36,

An introduction to this years '30 days 30 deeds' blog, focusing on 30 stories of refugees I've had the privilege of getting to know, in Greece and in our own community, and the people who are helping them feel at home.Video: George Kolotov

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the massive scale of the refugee crisis. Sixty five million people are displaced in the world today. If displaced people formed a country,

At a time in this country when even the sight of Arabic writing can make some people nervous, Aadil Abedi, a London-based artist, is launching his Arabic

As many of us are enjoying our summer holidays, some traveling abroad, others staying closer to home, I have a suggestion. The idea came to me as I was j