After swimming to escape Syria and saving the lives of other refugees -- then swimming as part of the Refugee Olympic Athletes Team at the Olympics -- Yusra Mardini probably deserves a bit of a rest. Instead, the tenacious Syrian teen was honored earlier this month at the first Global Goals Awards and continues to raise awareness for refugees. Read on to learn about Mardini, as well as more about what refugees face -- and what they can achieve.

washingtonpost.com - A Syrian teenager who saved fellow refugees from drowning and then swam for the refugee team at the Olympics was among those honored at the first Global Goals Awards in New York City.

Yusra Mardini, 18, who fled Syria with her sister in 2015 and now lives in Germany, received the Girl Award at the ceremony on Tuesday night.

The awards honor champions for women’s and girls’ rights and were organized by UNICEF, a children’s humanitarian program run by the United Nations.

Mardini, who had to swim for her life when her overloaded boat broke down in the Mediterranean Sea on the way to Europe, captured headlines when she competed at the Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

At a U.N. summit on migrants and refugees this week, she told world leaders that she wanted to change perceptions of those displaced from their homes.

We were so moved by the story of 15-year-old activist and Syrian refugee Omaima Hoshan, who began looking into the issue of child marriage after 12- and 13-year-old classmates left school to marry, and was moved by the courage and work of Malala Yousafzai. Hoshan now leads workshops for teenage girls and their families, working to encourage education instead of child marriage.

It's an issue that desperately needs attention: According to a UNICEF report, more than 700 million women worldwide were married before turning 18

Read the rest of Hoshan's story at the link. You can also watch her speak about why the issue is so important to her in a video by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

her.yourstory.com - Syria born Omaima Hoshan was 11-years-old when the war in Syria forced her to flee to Jordan with her family. The Hoshans left Damascus in 2012 and sought refuge at the Zaatari refugee camp — one of the largest in the world. Her main concern when she arrived at Zaatari was to resume her education and make new friends in the camp.

In a report by The Huffington Post, in the classroom, she discovered a troubling trend. “When I got to sixth grade, I started hearing about girls as young as 12 or 13 getting married. They would come to the school to say goodbye,” the now 15- year-old, told visitors from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a United Nations refugee agency, in April. “I remember thinking that they were making a big mistake,” she added.

When one of her closest friends, Basma (whose real name has been changed), told her that she was to be married at the age of 14, Omaima’s outrage reached new heights, and propelled her into action. Osmaima vowed that she wouldn’t let herself suffer the same fate — and she would try everything in her power to stop more child marriages from taking place in the camp.

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After swimming at the Olympics, a Syrian refugee gains a new platform at the U.N.

This 15-year-old Syrian is creating a revolution in a refugee camp, the Malala way - HerStory