Typhoon Haiyan Anniversary: From ship to shore, a story of survival
TACLOBAN, the Philippines, November 6 (UNHCR) – The big dredger looks menacing as it towers over the houses next to it. Children run around the ship, playing and seemingly unaware of the tragedy that placed it there. Somebody has nonetheless scribbled a message on the...
South Sudanese seek a chance to get on with life without fear
ADJUMANI DISTRICT, Uganda, November 3 (UNHCR) – Peter sat in the shade of a large tree in northern Uganda’s Adjumani district, still terrified that the violence he and his family left behind will catch up with them once again. “Sometimes my mind thinks...
A warm welcome for displaced Ukrainians in Russia’s Rostov region
KRASNY DESANT, Russian Federation, October 31 (UNHCR) – Lidia resents the presence of camera crews outside her house, saying she only did what anyone else would have done in her position, and the figures bear her out. The widow, like hundreds of other people living in...
Stitch by stitch towards greater protection in northern Myanmar
LAIZA, Myanmar, October 29 (UNHCR) – With colourful fabrics spread around tables and the rhythmic sound of sewing machines, interrupted by laughter and conversation, there is great camaraderie among a group of women in one of Laiza’s camps for internally...
Shooting the past
Just 19 years old, Fatima is already a widowed mother of three and a refugee from the conflict in Syria. Through photography, she has found a way to relate her experiences and begin rebuilding her shattered life. “Sometimes when I see my friends who are the same age,...
The Nun and the Imam
Sister Maria Concetta walks out of the labour room with a newborn baby in her arms and rushes through the corridors in search of a bed. The child is one of over 20,000 she has helped to deliver since she started working at the Zongo hospital near the Oubangui River,...
Creating a home from home, far from home in Erbil
ERBIL, Iraq, September 24 (UNHCR) – What had been an empty lot in Erbil’s Ainkawa district in early August is now a sea of white. Close to 300 UNHCR tents are laid out geometrically in an area the size of a city block in the capital of northern Iraq’s...
Ukraine: the internally displaced struggle to get by
NIKOLAEVKA, Ukraine, September 18 (UNHCR) – The old lady sits on the bed staring at the lavatory in her small room. “I am human, I am not a dog,” she says. “I didn’t ask them to bomb me. I had everything. Now I have nothing.” Tamara is an...