The Snow Storm
Aisha, a mother of four from Syria, wraps a blanket around her shoulders as the wind beats against the walls of the tent. Outside, snow is piling up and soon the family’s food will run out. “We are really scared of the storm,” she says, shivering as she hands some...
The Sound of Peace
Every morning, Ahmad gently wakes his six-year-old son, Abdu. Then he places hearing aids over the boy’s ears and asks him what he can hear. It is a ritual they cherish, a moment when they remember just how much their lives have changed. Ahmad and Abdu are Syrian...
Rough Crossing
As he stepped onto a boat on the Indonesia coast, Barat Ali Batoor knew he might not survive the voyage to Australia. But it was a risk he says he had to take. “It was not an easy decision for me,” says Batoor, 31, who proved luckier than many who brave the high seas...
Resettlement offers hope to ailing Syrian refugees in need of treatment
GENEVA, December 10 (UNHCR) –Young Abdu was born deaf and needed a cochlear implant that could drastically improve his hearing and his life; 17-year-old Abdullah suffered from a blood disorder and was in danger of dying without an urgent transfusion. The problem was...
The Things They Left Behind
Whenever you leave home, there’s inevitably something you crave: a food, a place, an item of clothing or just your own bed. It’s far worse when you have no time to pack. In the past year nearly 200,000 people have fled to Ethiopia to escape a brutal civil war in South...
Teacher’s vision brings education to hundreds in Pakistani refugee village
MIANWALI, Pakistan, December 8 (UNHCR) – When Aqeela started her teaching career 22 years ago in northern Pakistan, the toughest and most important lesson she learned was that she had to first educate the parents about the importance of letting their children,...
16 Days of Activism: Afghan girl embraces new beginning after escaping forced marriage
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, December 5 (UNHCR) – When her abusive, drug addict father told Zakia* that she must marry a man twice her age, the then 15-year-old was despondent. But after the Afghan refugee protested, she was barred from leaving the family home in the northern...
The forgotten refugees
Coping in a refugee camp is difficult at the best of times but when you are disabled, accessing communal services and living in temporary shelter brings added complications. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), with the support of donors like you, is working to address the...