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.

Divin was one of the last refugees to arrive in Boise, Idaho before a Trump Administration executive order barred refugees from entering the U.S. It was two years before his wife and young son could join him. Now they are welcoming the remaining members of their family, who had been stranded in a refugee camp in Burundi for 15 years.

"If the rescue boats hadn't found us, we all would have drowned," recalls Mohammed Omadi. Mohammed and his family, from Afghanistan, came face-to-face with death when forced to cross the sea to Greece to seek refuge in a safe country. Their cash, passports and luggage disappeared in the waves. Cash relief provides emergency financial assistance for families like the Omadis that have lost everything.