Ted Poe: “Last year, a National Geographic photographer captured 5,000 desperate people navigating their way through a sandstorm…”

“Last year, a National Geographic photographer captured 5,000 desperate people navigating their way through a sandstorm, then eventually breaking through a barbed wire for safety through the border into Turkey. They were among the roughly 11 million Syrians who have now been displaced from their homes over the past 4 years. The rich, the poor, the elderly, and the children, Christians, Muslims, they all share a new identity: a war refugee. Though they may be alive, many of them have little hope for a better life. A Syrian mother and a refugee under World Vision's refugee program said she and her family lived in a small apartment and they were happy before the war; they were never envious of anyone, but after living in a tent with some 25 other families in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, she now envies even the dead in Syria. Unable to work because it is illegal, the more than 3.8 million refugees in neighboring countries wonder every day if they will be given aid to feed their kids. Safe places where children can go to learn, laugh, and play don't exist. Parents worry that their children might also join the ranks of ISIS, become victims of child labor or forced marriage. A 14-year-old girl who participated in Save the Children's programs in Jordan had been married off by her father, not because he loved her less, but because it was one less mouth to feed in the family. Young girls like this one are torn within their identity.…”