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.

As the war in Syria enters its seventh year, students from the Sage International School in Boise wrote uplifting letters to Syrian children half a world away. Read all the letters.