“When you start doing anything, at first it’s going to be frightening,” Bothina Matar reassures the refugee women she works with in Dallas. She encourages them to strive for a better future—their children’s future—without forgetting their past. “I am trying my best,” Bothina tells them, “and succeeding somehow.”

From the carnage in Eastern Ghouta to the hundreds of thousands uprooted in Idlib, the war in Syria has taken a catastrophic human toll as we mark its seventh year.

Read about an ordinary day for an extraordinary woman living in one of the world’s largest refugee camps.

Meet Firas, 22, who worked with Refugee.Info, a digital service created by the International Rescue Committee in partnership with Google, Microsoft and Trip Advisor. The online and mobile platform provides crucial information to refugees seeking asylum from war and persecution.