Actor and activist Mandy Patinkin recently witnessed first­hand the refugee crisis engulfing Europe. Alongside International Rescue Committee aid workers in Greece, he met families who had fled Syria and other war­torn countries in hopes of finding a better life for their children in Europe. “Standing with them, I did not see strangers to be feared but the faces and stories of my own family.

When asked her favourite thing about her mom Chadia Bchir, 15-year-old Nour Alsaleh says without hesitation, it’s her smile. She sees in it the strength it took her mother to leave war-torn Syria to raise her and her brother in safety in the United Kingdom. “Your smile gives me hope,” she tells Chadia. “I think without you, my dad would probably not have taken the step to leave.