Several years ago, as a university student in Afghanistan, Musa had a dream: to finish his education so that he could work and serve his country. He was in the middle of pursuing a Science degree when the refugee crisis was beginning to gain momentum. Many of his friends and peers were fleeing to seek safety and asylum elsewhere. “At the time, I didn’t want to become a refugee,” he says. But by 2012, out of the 26 people who had been in his high school graduating class, Musa was only one of two who had stayed.

It all started with a book. While teaching at a Montessori school in Jakarta, Ariane had come across the writings of an Indonesian traveler who spent three years in Afghanistan. She was surprised to learn that there was so much more to Afghanistan than what was being portrayed on the news. She was very intrigued and soon found herself dreaming about her own journey to the region.

In the early 2000s, a fresh graduate from the University of Southampton in the U.K. decided to set off on a solo journey to Asia. Having just finished her degree in European Studies, she wasn’t quite sure what to do next -- so she packed her bags and headed south. “I always said that I didn’t want to be a teacher when I was younger,” Anneke says. But somewhere between Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia, she realized what she wanted to do was teach.

Maryam and Ahmed were only eight and seven years old when they left their home country of Yemen in 2015. Born to a Yemeni father and a Somali mother, the pair of siblings spoke only Arabic when their family first arrived in Indonesia. 

It was in July 2013 that Armin’s parents told him they were leaving Iran. As a young boy just about to turn 11, he was excited: this would be his first trip outside of his home country. The family was heading to Australia. At the time, he didn’t realize that they would be embarking on this journey as asylum-seekers, hoping to take refuge in another country.