These photographs were taken earlier this week in Africa by Jesuit Refugee Service staff working in a refugee camp outside of Guéréda, Chad. They are amazing!  Look at how happy you made them!

You did this.

When I began this project a little more than three years ago at my school in Alaska, I was young and rather naive. ​It was all just about making people happy, but it was with a feeling of pure emotion rather than knowledge.

I was unsure of what would happen to Any Refugee, and I worried that it would fail and people would hate everything about it. My subconscious was asking “What good can a random postcard do?” but now instead of thinking that, I say “Well, what can it not do?”

Now, three years and many thousands of postcards later, I have seen these pictures along with many others. I’ve talked and Skyped with kids all over the US and Canada about refugees.

I have spoken to refugees in Lebanon, Palestine, and even right here in Alaska, and reflected on the past. I can feel the happiness and angst that they are experiencing, and it is no longer surreal but just something in my life.

I have changed as a person, and I feel that this project will have great long term effects and will help people through their hard times. I am not just saying this through a scripted line like a talkshow host, but as a person.

I am happy to see this success, and may it be like this everlasting.