Activist Mia Farrow visits Syrian refugees

>> syria was on the vice president's agenda. vice president biden met with syria 's main coalition and promised continuing u.s. support. the unrest led to a major humanitarian crisis and the fighting between rebel forces and the president's military forced hundreds of thens of syrians from their homes. 700,000 rev news poured into neighboring countries. the united nations is making annest to raise money and give aid to the victims that. and unicef recruited mia farrow to raise awareness . she received acclaim for her role in rosemary's baby. children especially. she joins my by television. we hoped to have you via skype and there was a problem with the connection. we will take you on the phone as well. good to have you.

>> thank you very much.

>> you were in lebanon for unicef to get a firsthand look at the crisis. let's listen first of all toft observations that you made.

>> here in lebanon , 75% of the refugees are women and children . they come with nothing. absolutely nothing. they have no papers and their homes are destroyed.

>> mia, what else did you see while in lebanon ?

>> i had read like we all have of the atrocities in syria and that people were fleeing, but it's another level of knowing. to see people arrive in the night and they walk through nights and they walk through cluster bombs and they have nothing. it's a winter of unprecedented cold, snow, blowing icy winds and the people don't have tents and they put together pieces of cardboard and whatever pieces of material they can assemble to ward off the icy winds. i saw children without shoes standing in the snow and icy puddles. they don't have food. they don't have clean drinking water. i know that unicef and partners, i travelled with them and they are working around the clock to get the children winter coats and shoes and socks and hats. most of them don't have them yet. then too a level of trauma. the children, all the families in the clip, most are women and children and have seen homes destroyed and seen family members killed. they come from that into neighboring countries such as lebanon where there is nothing for them. it's a dire situation. it's a desperate situation.

>> what more if something should the united states be doing?

>> i know the united states has pledged some funds desperately needed and the international community has pledged a bunch of money. i think it's 1.5 billion. we are talking about millions of people. in syria , living in rubble and hiding from the bombings and snipers. then outside of syria in neighboring countries. even looking at it pragmatically, what's going to happen to these neighboring countries who are trying to host what will soon be millions of people? it destabilizes countries. lebanon , for example, is a population of just 4 million. if they are looking at something another million people of different ethnicities, they will be destabilized. it's not the most rock solid country anyway. the refugees are into the poor evidentiasest areas. that is the food programs and the refugee programs and unicef . these programs work. they are effective. they are drastically underfunded. none of us can do much to stop the violence , but we can help the most vulnerable victims of the violence.

>> while i have you here, i want to ask you about acting. you tweeted you were done and retiring from acting all together. are you? is that true?

>> i retired several times and never mentioned it to save my soul. that's another matter. for all intents and purposes, my focus is elsewhere. the last job i did, i vowed to myself i am not going to do this anymore. i have been doing it since i was 18 years old. for now, i just want to focus on other things.