PERPETUAL MOTION
Supporting Refugees Every Day
In the Middle East
and Eastern Europe
World Vision has been supporting children
and their families
who have been
forcibly displaced
for decades.
For World Refugee Day 2022,
we stop, for an instant, to listen to those children, feel their fragility on the move across our region, hear their stories and those who are serving them each and every day.
I have been constantly reminded during my humanitarian and development work, across 100 countries, that we are not truly divided by culture, language, religion and ethnicity. Rather, we are united by our hopes and dreams.
The global movement over the Ukraine crisis has been amazing and faith-restoring. The inspiring stories of individuals who have donated so generously, risked their lives to deliver aid, and show up for those most in need, should be the blueprint for all humanitarian crises.
While we celebrate the generosity of support for Ukraine, other desperately unfunded crises are losing even more support and are dropping off governments’ radars.
Eleanor Monbiot, Regional Leader
World Vision Middle East and Eastern Europe Region
Fear. Trauma. Loss.
Every day,
children are reminded of
what they were forced
to leave behind
when they fled.
UKRAINE RESPONSE
The escalation of conflict in Ukraine has forced more than
6.8 million people - mostly women and children - to flee to neighbouring countries.
With the escalating crisis, the casualties, the number of displaced and the needs are growing by the hour.
More than two-thirds of Ukraine's children have either fled for safety within the country or are living as refugees.
Europe is experiencing the largest refugee and humanitarian crisis on its soil since World War II. Families are being torn apart, and children are suffering the worst of all. In Ukraine itself, children and their families are facing extreme hardships. They are at constant risk of injury or death and living amongst ongoing armed conflict, whilst shielding from bombardments and artillery fire. They are surviving in basements, whilst struggling with shortages in food, water, healthcare, and power.
World Vision has been responding since the onset of the crisis.
Our response began in Romania where World Vision has been operating for over 30 years. We initially met basic needs on the border, providing sustenance and connecting refugees to essential services, such as transport, shelter, and healthcare. From early March, World Vision pivoted to building a more complex multi-country, multi-sector response to meet the varying needs of refugees, delivering life-saving assistance to meet basic needs, creating and supporting protective environments, and facilitating access to information and basic services.
1. Romania
In Romania, we are providing safe spaces for children to play and receive care, and supporting the shelters in urban centres that are providing temporary homes for refugee children and their families. We've been sending supplies across the border from Romania to Chernivtsi to support hospitals and local organisations that are treating large numbers of internally displaced people.
2. Georgia
In Georgia, we are supporting families who were travelling when the conflict started by getting children enrolled in school and psychosocial activities to process their experiences, and providing cash assistance.
3. Moldova
In Moldova we are supporting hospitals, food banks, and refugee and host communities with food, hygiene supplies, and cash assistance.
GEORGIA
Born in Iran, grown up in Azerbaijan and now living in Georgia – story of an Afghan boy’s journey to safety and self-realization.
The now 20 years old young man has spent half of his childhood in Iran facing numerous challenges in his life. Like others, Said had to go through abuse and violence every day, just to feed his family.
At the age of seven, he was offered illegal work in a furniture factory to support his mother and siblings financially.
When he was 15 years old he got into a severe car accident, which caused brain damage. He was hospitalized and required rehabilitation for 3 months.
"Chance comes once and you have to open the door and hug it, don’t let it go" – says Said.
Sidra was only four-years-old when the war started in Syria, which forced her parents to move to Georgia. Sidra and her family faced several difficulties in a completely new country, as they had to adapt to an entirely new cultural and social environment facing a communication barrier.
After the death of her father, Sidra had to take over the family business temporarily, which, obviously, was an impediment to her learning. Education appeared the most valuable and significant part of her life and despite the hardships, she has never stopped studying.
Currently 16-years-old Sidra is the leader of SKYE Club and assists Georgian and foreign young people to make friends, develop skills, and explore different cultures through a variety of activities.
"Everything has changed in my life, I have learnt a lot, I have improved my English, I have made more friends, and my life has changed entirely." – says Sidra.
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
LEBANON
A chance to dream of a
better future
When parents flee their country in a hurry, scared of the bombings that killed one of their children, parents become numb. They find refuge in a deserted place, and a tent becomes their new house. Parents raise their children with anything they can get, and they accept the idea that everything they worked for their whole life is gone, and they have nothing to inherit their children except skills and education.
In partnership with UNICEF and funds from FCDO (UKAID) and France, World Vision Lebanon provides 40 refugee children, aged between 10 and 14, not enrolled in the formal education system with "Basic Literacy and Numeracy" education, in Akkar, North of Lebanon.
Prevention leads to long and healthy lives
Despite COVID-19 shedding light on the importance of handwashing and hygiene practices to prevent the spread of this infectious disease, many children and their caregivers in Lebanon do not have access to handwashing and other disinfectant facilities. Syrian refugee children, residing in informal tented settlements, live in conditions that make it difficult to grow in a clean and safe environment.
“My husband tested positive earlier this year, we were very scared and we didn’t know what to expect. The kits came very helpful, World Vision staff explained to us how to use them to stay safe,” Mariam, 27
It is said that prevention is better than cure, and when it comes to children’s health, the ideal way is to stay protected from infection by maintaining the general norms of sanitation and hygiene.
Having a clean environment is every child’s right to help them lead long and healthy lives.
SYRIA RESPONSE
The brutal Syrian conflict cost thousands of children their loved ones. Many children lost either a mother, a father or both of their parents, leaving them dealing with a loss that no one can really ever recover from. This loss left tens of thousands of children without a sense of safety, having to face the world’s uncertainties and ambiguities alone.
Amira* lost both her parents and the brother after a plane bombed their village, leaving her alone with her grandmother and grandfather.
During one of the drawing classes where children were asked to draw what makes them feel happy, Amira drew her family and said, “I will never be happy without them”.
The facilitator comforted her and taught her healthy ways to manage and understand any negative emotions. Slowly, after four sessions, Amira started to come out of her shell and become more expressive. She learned how to use drawing and painting to express her feelings instead of holding them back. It helped her gain techniques through which she could adapt to her new life. After a while, Amira realised that personal relationships are meaningful and can bring joy to someone’s life. Amira found comfort and safety she has been searching for so long among her friends.
“I now feel that I have friends who love me. They are my support system, and I am grateful I reached this point”.
THE STRONG WOMEN
OF SYRIA
During such difficult times, Syria is witnessing, some strong women holding onto every bit of hope.
They are caring for their children and showering them with love. Some of them even support other women who live in the scattered displacement camps. They are the midwives who dedicated themselves to helping other women.
1. "I had to rise up, no matter what"
2. "Hope and persistance are the way to achieve everything in life."
3. "Stop looking in the past and on what you've lost, always look into the future and we can achieve"
IN AFGHANISTAN, the events leading up to the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul in August 2021 resulted in displacement within the country as well as into neighbouring countries.
The number of people displaced internally rose for the 15th straight year, even as more than 790,000 Afghans returned during the year.
PUBLICATIONS
Hungry and unprotected
children:
The forgotten refugees
In surveying refugee and internally displaced children in 2022, World Vision looked at the ongoing impacts of the pandemic, as well as the emerging global hunger crisis and what it means for forcibly displaced girls and boys.
World Vision's 2022 World Refugee Day report presents evidence that incomes and livelihoods are still decreasing as access to food, education, health services, and protection continues to be severely affected for people who are forcibly displaced, including refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced persons (IDPs). The report brings attention to those refugees that the international community have left behind due to trending news; the breaking news cycle has affected the international community's prioritisation of emerging crises over people suffering from protracted conflicts as their lives stagnate for years or even decades.
Women and Children of Syria's Widow Camps:
Hardest to Reach, Most at Risk
This new report investigates the impacts of the Syrian war in some of the hardest-to-reach places. It focuses on the so-called “widow camps”, home to tens of thousands of widows and other single women - including women who are divorced or whose husbands are missing - and their children, living in the 28 accessible camps across northwest Syria (NW Syria). These women and their children face chronic and high levels of violence, including neglect, verbal, physical and sexual abuse, as well as child marriage and child labour.
Boys are especially at risk of recruitment into armed groups, and later radicalisation. This is because boys older than 11 are considered male adults by the community and are forced to leave the camps, with no place to go, no employment prospects and no future.
Barriers and Facilitators for Refugee Children’s Education in Lebanon
Children are the cornerstone of any society as such they need to be provided with adequate opportunities to ensure their development, survival and rights on the path to their future as adults. It is often argued that child activity decision making, including schooling, is rooted in financial/economic factors or children’s academic performance. However, evidence indicates that the dynamics of child activity decisions involve parents’ characteristics as well in addition to household and community’s characteristics.
This study serves as an appendage to the cross-sectional research “Caregiver Perceptions and their Influence on Child Education and Labour across Different Areas in Lebanon” conducted by World Vision in Lebanon.
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