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Haya's song: Rich Stearns, World Vision U.S. president, thinks of his own children when he meets Haya, a 10-year-old Syrian refugee in Jordan and listens to her story of bravery and loss.
Voices

Our humanity brings us together

World Vision U.S. President Rich Stearns reflects on how we may seem worlds apart from our global neighbors, but we are not as different as we may think. He shares 10-year-old Haya’s song; the lyrics describe the loss, pain, and hope of Syrian refugees.

Sedra, 7, her parents, and her six siblings, ages 1 to 11, feared for their lives as they fled their war-torn nation, running away with only the clothes on their backs as they headed to the Jordanian border. They now live in Za'atari Refugee Camp in Jordan.
Special Features

Crying for their country

FEB. 1, 2014, JORDAN AND SYRIA — Of the 8 million people displaced by Syria’s war, more than half are children. Many arrive in neighboring countries with little more than the clothes on their backs and memories of friends and home. Here in Jordan, they take refuge with their families in a crowded camp or suffocating accommodations, mourning lost loved ones and yearning for their former lives. Each child has a story.

Isnino Siyat made it to Dadaab, a refugee camp in Kenya, with her husband and two children after walking for 10 days from their village in Somalia. She said the drought “finished both our livestock and our farm,” killing their five cows and 10 goats one by one over three months. Reaching Dadaab, Isnino was exhausted but had to make her own hut out of sticks, borrowed clothing scraps, and burlap sacks that once contained relief food. She worked alone while her husband was elsewhere in the camp, preparing for burial the body of their 3-year-old nephew, who died on the journey.
Special Features

Famine no more

FEB. 1, 2012, KENYA — The recent crisis in the Horn of Africa — so reminiscent of the 1980s — may suggest that fighting famine is futile. But better tools, heavier hitters, and the benefits of child sponsorship are saving lives.