Over 600,000 Syrian refugees are currently in Jordan, 80% of whom live in urban areas among Jordanian neighbors.  In February the International Rescue Committee organized a two-week social-therapy workshop at our women's center in the city of Irbid that brought together Syrian refugee teenagers and their Jordanian counterparts.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, neighbors are working together with the International Rescue Committee to build up and improve their communities. They're making and influencing decisions that affect their communities' futures—for example, deciding whether to build new schools or health centers, improve roads or construct water collection points.

An International Rescue Committee aid worker (his identity obscured for security reasons) takes us inside Areesha displacement camp, northeast Syria. Here 43,000 people who fled ISIS are crowded into a camp built for less than half that number.  Some 25,000 people are living on one piece of bread a day. Others have nothing to eat. The IRC is responding with emergency meals, which we have distributed to 5,000 families.

A Syrian mother stopping with her family on the island of Lesbos, Greece — one of more than half a million desperate people who have fled to Europe this year from countries in chaos.

In northeastern Nigeria, 14.9 million people's lives have been shattered by the war on Boko Haram. More than 60% of those in need are children like Aisha, who saw the terrorists kill her uncle. When 11-year-old Aisha fled her home, she also had to leave school behind.

Muhammed Ali was just five days old when he and his family fled their home in war-torn Aleppo, Syria. Like many families, they had to split up to find safety. The four-year-old is now living in a camp in northern Greece with his mother and two of his siblings. His father and sister Noora are in Germany.

Eight-year-old twin sisters from Afghanistan recount harrowing tales of the fearful journey they endured as they made their escape to Europe. They are just two of the more than one million refugees from countries experiencing relentless conflicts who have fled to Europe for safety and a new start. "The smugglers had sticks and they beat us, and wouldn’t let us stop even for five minutes," one of the girls said.

Sixty percent of refugees worldwide live in cities and communities rather than in camps. Providing refugees cash instead of goods like blankets or food, allows aid agencies like the International Rescue Committee to reach refugees quickly and at a lower cost. Cash relief is also good for the economy. It means refugees can buy what they need from local shops, growing their communities.

Despair and devastation ring loud in headlines defined by the hopelessness and loss felt by millions everywhere. The weight of those words is heavy, and the futures of many communities seem uncertain at best. But brave individuals are rewriting their story. Theirs is not a story of hopelessness and loss, but one of optimism and strength.