End of the tunnel

I spent the morning at the hairdressers, they have a new trainee, although he's not really a trainee, he's just there for a three week work experience period.
This 17 year old is living in a children's home in Essen, having walked all the way from Syria to get to somewhere safe. He doesn't even necessarily want to be in Germany, it just wasn't safe for him to stay in Syria. He's a year younger than my teen and he's alone here.
The last time I was at my hairdressers he told me about another refugee, a young girl at the children's home, she has no fingers, only thumbs, because she was caught with books.