Almost two years ago I took a trip to Greece with three of my college friends. While many were headed to beach destinations along the Mediterranean coast, our cohort arrived with a different purpose. We had come to volunteer with humanitarian organizations in Thessaloniki, to offer support and better the livelihood of asylum seekers and other victims of the Syrian refugee crisis.

Refugees are defined as people who are forced to leave their country for fear of violence or persecution as a result of their ethnicity, religion, or political views. By the end of 2017, the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR) recognized the existence of 25.4 million refugees internationally, more than half of which were under the age of 18.