After Hala’s husband was captured by ISIS, she became glued to her mobile phone. It became her lifeline to hope, her one possibility for finding and rescuing the person who meant the most to her. With Instagram and Snapchat filled with memes of cats, pizza and silly antics, it's easy to forget that mobile phones can provide essential, life-saving functions. 

Smartphones have the ability to help women and men in remote regions access banking, business, education and other opportunities. For refugees, mobile phones are often the only connection to family and friends and the world left behind. 

The video from Channel4 below highlights the heartbreaking yet hopeful story of Hala. A Syrian refugee who is seeking asylum in Germany, she made the impossible decision to leave her home in Aleppo after her husband was captured by members of ISIS.

Now, Hala is travelling to Germany with her daughters. Her sanguine outlook would falter without her mobile phone. 

“See why this phone is so dear? It has everything. All my family, all my world is here,” says Hala at the beginning of the video.

Her phone's background is a photograph of Abu Ali, her husband -- a man she was married to for 21 years before he was captured by ISIS. In the video, she talks about how the two of them would have coffee every morning. Even if he sometimes rushed out the door, she would bring him back and remind him of their morning ritual. Now, she drinks coffee for the both of them.

Hala and her daughters are heading to Germany, where she “knows [she'll] have better life” but she still expresses fear about religious intolerance upon her arrival.

It’s deeply saddening to hear a refugee's concern about religious intolerance after going through so much. Spreading and sharing positive stories can help challenge and change negative preconceived notions about refugees.

On a more mundane level, Hala's story can remind others of the most basic purpose of smartphones and apps like Facebook: communication. 

As grandparents, parents, new communities, and other generations join social media, let’s welcome and teach one another, embracing the connectivity smartphones can bring around the world. 

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