As a barrage of rockets continued to explode around them in the early hours one morning in the middle of June 2013, Betul Abras and her family were preparing to leave their home in Syria for the safety of Turkey.

The bombardment had lasted for nearly 24 hours and Abras’ mother could no longer bear the frightening situation. Leaving their village, located near the Turkish border, was a difficult decision for the family, but they had only planned to go for a few days in order to escape the onslaught.

Having made the crossing illegally with her brother and sister while her parents — who were the only ones with passports — went through the official border control, Abras arrived in Kilis, the southeastern Turkish border town.

Nearly six years later, Abras remains in the border town where she has provided crucial psychological support to victims of the war. This summer she published her first book “Memories Scattered by War," documenting 10 heartbreaking cases she has dealt with, in the hope of humanizing a conflict that has devasted the lives of millions of Syrians.