When Ali and his family fled their home in Syria shortly after the war broke out, they had nothing but the clothes on their backs and hope for a better future.

Five years on, that hope has turned to despair.

Now in Lebanon, none of the family’s six children attend formal schooling, and 15-year-old Ali and his younger brother must work to support their family, digging potatoes for just US$4 a day.

Bahir is one of tens of thousands of unaccompanied children who have crossed the Mediterranean Sea since the beginning of 2015 to seek safety and protection in Europe. Today, he's living with the Petrovics, a foster family in Serbia, while he waits to be reunited with his family.

In a small town in Serbia, a teenage boy with a baseball cap paces the front yard of Petar and Petra Petrovic’s* family home. He is wearing headphones and quietly singing while listening to rap music. 

It’s hard to think of a crime whose victims are more faceless and vulnerable than victims of child sexual abuse. In most middle and low income countries, the subject of child sexual abuse remains largely taboo, without a social imperative to report suspicion of the crime within the community and with no ready help for children.

In Chad, the Daresalam refugee camp hosts more than 5,000 refugees from Nigeria and Niger. Here, every individual has fled atrocities and violence that plague their countries. The camp’s school is the only place where Yande Tchari, 17 years old and in first grade, feels safe. “Only in class am I able to take my mind off things. School gives me the opportunity to learn always something new,” she says.

Nawwar and his family made the difficult journey from their Syrian home to Germany, with the assistance of some imaginary friends. Find out how he’s doing now that he’s back in school.

How does a child deal with a dangerous sea crossing as his family flees the Syrian Arabic Republic in search of a safer life in Europe? For 7-year-old Nawwar, it was a group of imaginary friendly polar bears, floating on ice, that protected his family as they travelled in a crowded raft across the sea from Turkey to Greece.

Should you post pictures of your kid on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? Two moms debate the pros and cons.

“Yes”

Caron Court, mom of one

I guess you could say my six-year-old, Owen, is a rising social media star—at least in my eyes. I’ve been posting his funny expressions on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag #owenisms since he was a toddler, and I’ve shared more than 4,000 photos of us on Instagram.

I’m a mama to a boy. Since I grew up penis-less I never thought about the changes male bodies go through, as boys become teenagers and eventually, men. When I was a preteen, I had enough worries figuring out tampons and training bras. I had no interest in what was happening to boys physically. I only cared about who was cute that week and if I had a date for the teacher-chaperoned dance, not what stage of puberty the shy boy in my science class was at.

With a new niece on the way, I can’t help but become growingly concerned about raising awareness about child abuse, more specifically, sexual assault. This was always a worry on my mind with my nephew as well, as boys are becoming victims of child sexual abuse just as often as girls are, and it is up to the adults of this world to prepare the children of society of the potential dangers…