When I grow up, I wish that I could become an orthopedic so that I can help other people in need who are in similar situation as my father," says 11-year old Fatin.

Photo:  Zaynab Mayladan/NRC
2020

Nyttårsønsker

Nyttår er en tid for refleksjon, og for å se fremover mot det nye året. Mens vi ser frem mot 2020, inviterer vi mennesker på flukt i Afghanistan, Palestina og Libanon til å dele sine ønsker og drømmer for fremtiden.

Jeg drømmer om…utdanning og en karriere i cricket

Belal (15) er en pakistansk flyktning og bor i Gulan flyktningleir sørøst i Afghanistan. Her risikerer tusenvis av flyktningfamilier å miste sine grunnleggende rettigheter, fanget midt i en tvist mellom de afghanske og pakistanske myndighetene, og forlatt av det internasjonale samfunnet.

Belal, 15, a student who also manages a cricket team, has become a role model for other children of his age. Belal has finished primary school, and since there were no opportunities for secondary education, he simply joined the same class that he had attended before.

“I wish there was a high school and we could continue our studies, before it’s too late,” he says.

Despite these limited opportunities, Belal runs a cricket team. He has a lot of time to practise as there is little else to do in the camp. He wishes to go back to his country and become a national cricket player one day.

“I know how hard life is in this refugee camp and I know it’s hard for every one of us. Through cricket we want to overcome some of the challenges together,” he says with optimism. Photo: Enayatullah Azad/NRC
Belal (15) er en pakistansk flyktning og bor i Gulan flyktningleir sørøst i Afghanistan. Foto: Enayatullah Azad/Flyktninghjelpen

Belal er student, og leder også et cricketlag. Han har blitt et forbilde for andre barn på samme alder. Han ønsker å reise tilbake til hjemlandet og bli en nasjonal cricket-spiller en dag.

– Jeg skulle ønske at det var en videregående skole og at vi kunne fortsette studiene, før det er for sent. Jeg vet hvor vanskelig livet er i denne flyktningleiren, og jeg vet at det er vanskelig for hver og en av oss. Gjennom cricket ønsker vi å overvinne noen av utfordringene sammen, sier Belal.

Jeg ønsker meg…mitt eget rom

Jumana (47) bor i Al Shati flyktningleir i nærheten av Gaza by, Palestina. Familien hennes er en av tusenvis i Gaza som sliter med å takle økende arbeidsledighet og minkende støtte fra myndighetene.

Jumana Murad, 47, in her bare rented apartment.
In just over seven years, Jumana, who lives in Al Shati refugee camp near Gaza City, lost four of her children.
Juliana died at age 17 in 2012 after she accidentally took the wrong medication for a severe stomach ache. Just over a year later, Lina, 14 at the time, died when she fell from the fourth floor of a building. Jumana says her son, Qusai, inhaled smoke from Israeli shells fired during the first major round of hostilities, which ran from December 2008 to January 2009, and developed respiratory problems that contributed to his death in 2014 at age 6. 
This year, Jumana grieved the loss of her 19-year-old daughter, Jasmin, who died from complications of kidney failure.
Medical bills have left the family in debt. 
All told, the family owes 2,900 NIS (US$825) for groceries, prescriptions, and rent. Unpaid promissory notes to landlords have landed Jumana’s husband, Adel, a tailor by profession, in prison since July 2018. After losing his job at a factory in Israel, he worked as a cleaner in Gaza until health problems resulted in too many absences and he was let go. 
According to the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, some 2,000 households faced the risk of eviction in 2018 over inability to pay rent. As of August this year, the Ministry of Social Development pegged the number of families under eviction risk at 9,356. 
Evictions have become routine for Jumana and her family over the past two years. They have found themselves often sleeping on the street or at the port several times.
“When we were in the tent in the street, we felt very embarrassed whenever people walked past us,” said Jumana. “We tried to cover ourselves with plastic and carton sheets. We did not have water, so we could not shower, and our poor personal hygiene caused us skin problems.”
While in the tent and on the street, the family relied on the owner of a nearby restaurant and goodwill from other people for food. Jumana’s boys also scavenged the local market for leftovers near spoiled vegetables to complement their diet of bread and tea.
All five of Jumana’s surviving children dropped out of school because of the number of times they have been forced to move after getting evicted from their home, as well as lack of funds for school fees, uniforms, and transportation. Ali and Mohammad, 15, completed first grade only; their siblings Jenin, 17, and Saed, 16, made it to second grade, and Diana graduated from fifth grade.
The family receives 1,600 NIS (US$453) in cash assistance from the Ministry of Social Development every three months, which are often delayed or incomplete, and UNRWA food vouchers, but often uses them to repay grocery debts. In fact, more than half of the households surveyed by NRC resorted to selling the assistance received.
Since May, Jumana’s family has received cash-for-rent from NRC, as part of a project funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to support 280 vulnerable households to stave off the threat of eviction.
“We are terrified of living on the street after the cash-for-rent assistance from NRC finishes,” said Jumana. “We always think about what we are going to do after the end of the project. I dream about having one room for myself one day.”
The loss of the children, “one after the other," as Jumana says, has taken its toll, physically and psychologically, on the surviving family members. Adel, and Jumana’s oldest son, Ali, both have psychological problems and require expensive prescriptions.  
Ali, was only 15 when he had witnessed his sister plummet to her death. A four-month stint in a psychiatric hospital barely scratched the surface, and he increasingly turned to drugs and crime. Now 21, he has been serving a seven-year sentence for numerous robbery convictions since 2017.
While the prison has granted Ali furlough on weekends, he has used the time, together with his family, to participate in the Great March of Return mass protests on Fridays along Gaza’s perimeter fence with Israel. Without hope or prospects for the future, Jumana says they take advantage of the free transportation to attend the demonstrations for a sense of stress release from their daily lives.
Unfortunately, Ali, his sister and father were unable to escape injury. 
Ali was shot twice in the leg, in separate incidents in 2018, sustaining serious nerve and artery damage. His latest injury occurred in January this year, when a rubber-coated steel bullet fractured his nose. 
Diana, 18, sustained shrapnel wounds to her left arm and thigh in 2018. In March this year, a tear gas canister struck her in the right shoulder. While Diana’s father looked for her amid the crowds, he fell to the ground with a bullet wound to the leg. Complications arising from diabetes and kidney problems have stalled his recovery.
Photo taken on 21 August 2019
Photo: Ahmed Mashharawi/NRC
Jumana (47) bor i Al Shati flyktningleir i nærheten av Gaza by, Palestina. Foto: Ahmed Mashharawi/Flyktninghjelpen

Fembarnsmoren Jumana sliter med å få endene til å møtes og kjemper for å hindre at familien blir kastet ut fra rommet de bor i. Hun har nylig mottatt kontanter som skal gå til leie av Flyktninghjelpen, men bekymrer seg for hva fremtiden vil bringe.

– Vi er livredde for å ende opp på gaten etter at kontant-for-leie-hjelpen fra Flyktninghjelpen er ferdig. Vi tenker alltid på hva vi skal gjøre etter prosjektets slutt. Jeg drømmer om å ha et rom for meg selv en dag, sier Jumana.

Jeg drømmer om…fred og å gjenforenes med familien

Shamsedine (44) er syrisk flyktning og bor i Bekaa-dalen øst i Libanon. Libanon er vertskap for mennesker på flukt fra Syria og Palestina, og har det største antallet flyktninger per innbygger i verden. Dette har lagt press på offentlige tjenester. Flyktninger kan ikke arbeide lovlig, og det er vanskelig å bevege seg fritt uten frykt for arrestasjon eller internering.

My wish for this new year is for the war in Syria to end so that the children of Syria can be safe. The country needs stability so that people can return and be united again. Before the war families were united and loved ones always saw each other. I haven’t seen my brother for 5 years who live in another part of Lebanon because our financial conditions don’t allow for it. 

Photo: Zaynab Mayladan/NRC
Shamsedine (44) er syrisk flyktning og bor i Bekaa-dalen øst i Libanon. Foto: Zaynab Mayladan/Flyktninghjelpen

– Mitt ønske for dette nye året er at krigen i Syria skal ta slutt slik at Syrias barn kan være trygge. Landet trenger stabilitet, slik at folk kan dra tilbake og gjenforenes. Før krigen var familiene sammen, og kjære så alltid hverandre. Jeg har ikke sett broren min på fem år. Han bor i en annen del av Libanon, og de økonomiske forholdene våre tillater det ikke, sier Shamsedine.

Jeg ønsker meg…at barna mine skal få en god utdanning

Fatima (39) er syrisk flyktning og bor i Libanonfjellene vest i Libanon.

I wish my family could be resettled so that my children can pursue their education. That’s all I hope for, that they can get a good education.

Photo: Zaynab Mayladan/NRC
Fatima (39) er syrisk flyktning og bor i Libanonfjellene vest i Libanon. Foto: Zaynab Mayladan/Flyktninghjelpen

– Håpet er borte, men vi har drømmer. Jeg drømmer at min familie kan bosettes i et nytt land, slik at barna mine kan fortsette utdanningen sin. Det er alt jeg vil, at de kan få en god utdanning for å få en bedre fremtid, sier Fatima.

I drømmer om…å bli en ortopedisk kirurg

Fatin (11) er syrisk flyktning og bor også i Libanonfjellene, Libanon.

When I grow up, I wish that I could become an orthopedic so that I can help other people in need who are in similar situation as my father," says 11-year old Fatin.

Photo:  Zaynab Mayladan/NRC
Fatin (11) er syrisk flyktning og bor også i Libanonfjellene, Libanon. Foto: Zaynab Mayladan/Flyktninghjelpen

– Jeg drømmer om å bli en ortopedisk kirurg når jeg blir voksen, slik at jeg kan hjelpe andre mennesker i nød som er i en lignende situasjon som pappa, sier Fatin.

Jeg ønsker meg…et nytt liv i et nytt land

Ali (18) er en syrisk flyktning bosatt i Bekaa-dalen øst i Libanon.

I wish I could be resettled to a third country. There is no future for me here and in Syria I’m going to be forced to conscription. The only way I could get a better life is by leaving for another country. 

I also wish that the Arab states and international community could find a solution for the youth. We are living a very difficult life and we need their support to live in decency. 

Photo: Zaynab Mayladan/NRC
Ali (18) er en syrisk flyktning bosatt i Bekaa-dalen øst i Libanon. Foto: Zaynab Mayladan/Flyktninghjelpen

– Jeg skulle ønske jeg kunne bli bosatt i et tredje land. Det er ingen fremtid for meg her, og i Syria ville jeg bli tvunget til verneplikt. Den eneste måten jeg kan få et bedre liv er ved å reise til et annet land. Jeg ønsker også at de arabiske statene og det internasjonale samfunnet skal få til å finne en god løsning for ungdommen. Vi lever et veldig vanskelig liv og vi trenger deres støtte for å leve i anstendighet, sier Ali.

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Les mer om arbeidet vårt i Afghanistan, Palestina og Libanon.

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