Ahlam is a 27 years old woman who lives in Algarad, the internally displaced camp in Lahj Governorate. She fled from Taiz 1,3 yrs ago. “The clashes were very strong near our houses and our relatives could not go out to bring food or water. One day my husband went out to his regular work in a construction site, and received a number of bullets that took his soul and he left us”. Now she is a widow with no support, and she is looking after four children (Adyan 4 years old, Ahmed 6 years old, Taypa 8 years old & Fatima 10 years old). “I was afraid that bullets and snipers in the mountains will kill us if we approached these areas. I did not expect that my life would take this tragic turn and I would be left alone to take care of myself and my children”. Her daily routine in the camp includes cooking breakfast for her children, but some days they do not have enough food for everyone and she has to go hungry for days so that the children can eat. She also prepares the children for school and her eldest daughters help her to bring water and firewood to the tent. Most of the people from her village have fled including her family, but they are not here in the camp with her. The weather in the camp is terrible and they do not have a proper roof so rain and dust in the windy weather gets inside their tent. They do not have appropriate shelter and now summer is coming with its hot winds. It will be difficult to move around under the sun’s intense heat. Her message to the international community is to support us and our children in the displacement camps. “Help us and protect our basic rights of living in dignity. What we need most in the camp are food and water that provide us with our daily necessities in life”. Photo: Ingrid Prestetun/NRC

Ta et lite skritt mot å løse et stort problem

Hvert år publiserer Flyktninghjelpen en oversikt over flyktningsituasjonen verden over. Tallene i år viser at antallet mennesker på flukt har økt kraftig de siste ti årene. Faktisk er tallet mer enn doblet siden januar 2012, og er i dag på alarmerende 82,4 millioner mennesker.

Men er det noe vi, som enkeltpersoner, kan gjøre for å hjelpe?

Det korte svaret er JA! Heldigvis er det noen ting alle kan gjøre for å bidra. Det er også absolutt nødvendig at vi velger å gjøre det, dersom vi noen gang skal kunne se slutten på denne krisen.

Hvert eneste menneske fortjener å leve et liv i verdighet, og hvert eneste menneske betyr noe. Selv om statistikken kan virke overveldende, er det alltid verdt det å gjøre noe for andre. Selv om du klarer å hjelpe bare én person, så betyr det alt for den du hjelper.

Så hva er problemet?

Problemet er ikke flyktningene selv, men situasjonen de befinner seg i. De aller fleste er bare mennesker som deg og meg, men som har blitt tvunget til å forlate alt og flykte til tryggheten – fordi de ikke har noe annet valg.

De grusomme utfordringene mange som er på flukt går igjennom er umulige for de fleste av oss å fatte. Likevel makter de å fortsette, og søker videre etter lyset i enden av en veldig mørk tunnel.

Monique Kanku Luboya, 45, stands in front of her new house with her children (from youngest to oldest) Bambi Angel, 2; Sylvain, 4; Elyse, 6; Mopero, 8; Monique Kapinga,10; Berthine, 12; Marie, 18; and Agnes, 20. Photo: Itunu Kuku/NRC
Monique og barna hennes står utenfor sitt nye hjem i DR Kongo. De måtte gjemme seg i skogen i fem måneder etter at landsbyen deres ble angrepet av væpnede menn. Foto: Itunu Kuku/Flyktninghjelpen

De av oss som var heldige nok til å bli født i et trygt hjørne av verden bør gjøre det vi kan for dem som ikke var like heldige. I stedet for å se på flyktninger som fiender, burde vi heller la oss inspirere av dem, og jobbe mot å gjøre verden til et bedre sted for alle – litt etter litt.

Her er tre ting du kan gjøre for å hjelpe mennesker som er tvunget til å flykte fra hjemmene sine:

1. Bruk stemmeretten din!

Stem på politiske partier som fører en human flyktningpolitikk.

Vi trenger at samfunnet står sammen og aktivt tar del for å kunne få slutt på flyktningkrisen. Et av de beste verktøyene vi har for å kunne oppnå dette er å stemme i samsvar med disse verdiene når det er valg.

Det er mye myndigheter kan gjøre for å støtte flyktninger. De kan ta sin del av ansvaret for å beskytte mennesker på flukt og påse at ingen sendes tilbake til farlige situasjoner. Rike land kan også øke støtten til mennesker som bor i konfliktsoner, og hjelpe dem å gjenoppbygge sine egne samfunn.

Du kan være med og styre din egen regjering i denne retningen ved å bruke stemmeretten din. Det igjen sender en klar beskjed til andre land: “Se, i landet vårt bryr vi oss om mennesker over hele verden. Nå er det på tide at dere anerkjenner deres ansvar også.”

Stella, a community mobiliser with NRC, demonstrates the seven steps of handwashing as a preventive measure to protect IDPs from Covid-19. Photo: Egily Hakim George/NRC
Stella, som jobber for Flyktninghjelpen i Sør-Sudan, viser hvordan man vasker hendene for å beskytte seg mot Covid-19. Foto: Egily Hakim George/Flyktninghjelpen

2. Gi en gave til en humanitær organisasjon

Bidra til varig endring for millioner av mennesker som er tvunget til å forlate alt.

Mange humanitære organisasjoner verden over jobber døgnet rundt for å beskytte og støtte mennesker som er på flukt.

Her i Flyktninghjelpen har vi 75 års verdifull erfaring med å hjelpe mennesker som har måttet forlate hjemmene sine. I likhet med andre humanitære organisasjoner arbeider vi etter prinsippene om humanitet, nøytralitet, upartiskhet og uavhengighet. Dette betyr at vi jobber for å hjelpe dem som trenger det mest, uavhengig av hvem de er eller hvor de kommer fra.

I 2020 hjalp vi nesten 12 millioner mennesker. I tillegg til å yte nødhjelp arbeider vi for å få på plass varige løsninger. For eksempel bidrar vi med utdanning, vi hjelper mennesker med å skaffe seg et levebrød, og vi tilbyr rettshjelp til dem som trenger det. For å kunne fortsette å hjelpe mennesker på flukt, trenger vi din hjelp.

Flyktninghjelpen hjelper mennesker på flukt i over 30 land verden over. Støtt vårt arbeid i dag.

• How long have you been working for NRC? Since September • How are the children responding to the activities they are learning at the center? “The children are responding beautifully. Each child takes it at their own pace and rhythm. The impact is positive and fruitful for the children. It gives them tools to cope better in conflict situations. How to deal with anger, how to deal wit fear how to deal with volatile thoughts with very efficient techniques.” • What do the children tell you about the activities? “They get a lot of pleasure. They get a lot of joy, relaxation and wellbeing.” • What are the challenges you see with the children and the experience they have gone through? “Some have been slightly injured from the explosion. Others have witnessed terrorising moments. Some tell you they had shattered glass on their feet, on their faces. But we cannot generalise, these are certain cases.” • What does the parents of the children tell you about the impact of NRC’s activities on their children? “The parents have said to me ‘what are you doing with the children, they are transformed. What are you doing with them, we want the same thing!’ They are feeling the evolution of their child.” Transcript of video interview with Social Emotional Support Facilitator Chadi Zein: These activities are one of the most important things that students must learn, not only in difficult times and in the occurrence of disasters and problems. This type of classes should be practice in every school around the world in order to achieve peace in the world. Because these activities, which they learn in these classes, allow them to discover what is happening deep inside them, and how they feel when something is happening or if they are thinking about an idea, if that idea is preferred or not, and what can I do for similar thoughts. They are learning emotional intelligence, the feelings and the thoughts, that’s means, what I can do when I am scared or sad or angry, should I let it control me and makes me tired and sick, or I manage it in a better way by reducing it and choose what is happening inside me. He is like a farmer who cultivates his land, he doesn’t leave the weed in his land, but he removes them. The children respond wonderfully in this context. First of all I ask them, I know when I ask a child how did you feel before and after the activities, from time to time and according to the design of BLB, you have to ask the child: how did you feel, did you do the exercises at home or not, and what did you feel after doing the exercises? He distinguishes where he feels. For example, this is the scale of feelings, before coming to the center, the children don’t know what they are feeling, and a child lives a state but doesn’t think about it. As soon as he arrives in the center he learns how to think, if he is very happy or a little bit happy or a bit sad or very sad, or angry, then he learns that the feelings are normal things, they move like an ocean wave. Sometimes, some events cause stress, what I should do to be relieved, so that these events do not disturb me much. What I should do to reduce it. They learn all of this here. It changes their lives in certain point, I know that this thing has happened in concrete terms from what they say and they tell you. For example I have three students in one class they are brothers, once the old brother saw his other brothers fighting, he remembered that when they get angry they can do the deep breathing and use other tools, he reminded them of that but they didn’t listen to him, he went to a safe zone and relieved, then he went in the room, he saw his brothers paintings together and stopped fighting, they were communicating between each other. That’s because all of them used the tools that they learned here, and they used them in their daily life, without need to anybody to remind them of these tools, they remember themselves so they feel more comfortable. Because of that, all the children must learn these type of exercises and tools, to be more satisfied and to have a valuable relationship between them and their friends, their teachers and their parents, this relationship should not be built on violence or anger etc.. But built on controlling the feelings and thoughts and to communicate through relations in a comfortable environment, which contains more dialogue. Also it effects positively on their grades, as well as on everything they do. You asked me how do I know that. At the end of the course we speak with the parents, I ask them, did you see a progress, and they say yes we can feel a concrete progress The explosion in Beirut has affected all of us, as adults, in our works and activities, all of us are vulnerable to trauma. It was a trauma for everyone, it was a near-death experience, and we were almost being hurt. If it affected us like this, how did it affect children? The children are fresh dewy buds; definitely they were affected by the explosion. Someone thinks that a cloud is an explosion, another when he hears a loud sound, he thinks it is an explosion, and another if he sees smoke he thinks it is an explosion. It exists in their daily life and makes them worried, a part from what they saw, and some children saw very terrifying scenes. Sometimes the children speak about it. In the class we respect the privacy of the child, so we don’t ask the child to tell us what has happened to him. When we work on the events which cause stress, we mention the war and the explosion, which are among other events which happen. There are children tell you, for example, if we do the breathing exercise or another exercise and said that it relieves us, sometimes a child come and tell you that he had pieces of glass in his leg, or he was injured, every child spontaneously tells us, I don’t go through details with him but I continue the lesson, this thing is heard and drawn. A child drew the explosion, I am not sure if it still here, some of them draws the explosion, everyone expresses using his style. There are children have nightmares, other children can’t sleep, other children don’t want to go out of the house because they are afraid of an explosion. By the way, they are the same symptoms that adults have them, everybody has the same symptoms. The explosion thundered… he is just a little child… we want to say that for all humans the explosion caused trauma for everyone. Transcript of Interview with Social emotional support facilitator Chadi Zein: You saw how the boy participated, he was great, he reached his limit, then he moved to another place. We wasted time on behavior issues during the last class. Today it worked out because I made an intensive lesson about the content of the last lesson and the safe zone, because it was the occasion of prophet’s birthday, I had to do it intensive. These activities are one of the most important things that students must learn, not only in difficult times and in the occurrence of disasters and problems. This type of classes should be practice in every school around the world in order to achieve peace in the world. Because these activities, which they learn in these classes, allow them to discover what is happening deep inside them, and how they feel when something is happening or if they are thinking about an idea, if that idea is preferred or not, and what can I do for similar thoughts. They are learning emotional intelligence, the feelings and the thoughts, that’s means, what I can do when I am scared or sad or angry, should I let it control me and makes me tired and sick, or I manage it in a better way by reducing it and choose what is happening inside me. He is like a farmer who cultivates his land, he doesn’t leave the weed in his land, but he removes them. The children respond wonderfully in this context. First of all I ask them, I know when I ask a child how did you feel before and after the activities, from time to time and according to the design of BLB, you have to ask the child: how did you feel, did you do the exercises at home or not, and what did you feel after doing the exercises? He distinguishes where he feels. For example, this is the scale of feelings, before coming to the center, the children don’t know what they are feeling, and a child lives a state but doesn’t think about it. As soon as he arrives in the center he learns how to think, if he is very happy or a little bit happy or a bit sad or very sad, or angry, then he learns that the feelings are normal things, they move like an ocean wave. Sometimes, some events cause stress, what I should do to be relieved, so that these events do not disturb me much. What I should do to reduce it. They learn all of this here. It changes their lives in certain point, I know that this thing has happened in concrete terms from what they say and they tell you. For example I have three students in one class they are brothers, once the old brother saw his other brothers fighting, he remembered that when they get angry they can do the deep breathing and use other tools, he reminded them of that but they didn’t listen to him, he went to a safe zone and relieved, then he went in the room, he saw his brothers paintings together and stopped fighting, they were communicating between each other. That’s because all of them used the tools that they learned here, and they used them in their daily life, without need to anybody to remind them of these tools, they remember themselves so they feel more comfortable. Because of that, all the children must learn these type of exercises and tools, to be more satisfied and to have a valuable relationship between them and their friends, their teachers and their parents, this relationship should not be built on violence or anger etc.. But built on controlling the feelings and thoughts and to communicate through relations in a comfortable environment, which contains more dialogue. Also it effects positively on their grades, as well as on everything they do. You asked me how do I know that. At the end of the course we speak with the parents, I ask them, did you see a progress, and they say yes we can feel a concrete progress The explosion in Beirut has affected all of us, as adults, in our works and activities, all of us are vulnerable to trauma. It was a trauma for everyone, it was a near-death experience, and we were almost being hurt. If it affected us like this, how did it affect children? The children are fresh dewy buds; definitely they were affected by the explosion. Someone thinks that a cloud is an explosion, another when he hears a loud sound, he thinks it is an explosion, and another if he sees smoke he thinks it is an explosion. It exists in their daily life and makes them worried, a part from what they saw, and some children saw very terrifying scenes. Sometimes the children speak about it. In the class we respect the privacy of the child, so we don’t ask the child to tell us what has happened to him. When we work on the events which cause stress, we mention the war and the explosion, which are among other events which happen. There are children tell you, for example, if we do the breathing exercise or another exercise and said that it relieves us, sometimes a child come and tell you that he had pieces of glass in his leg, or he was injured, every child spontaneously tells us, I don’t go through details with him but I continue the lesson, this thing is heard and drawn. A child drew the explosion, I am not sure if it still here, some of them draws the explosion, everyone expresses using his style. There are children have nightmares, other children can’t sleep, other children don’t want to go out of the house because they are afraid of an explosion. By the way, they are the same symptoms that adults have them, everybody has the same symptoms. The explosion thundered… he is just a little child… we want to say that for all humans the explosion caused trauma for everyone.
Chadi Zein hjelper barn som ble rammet av eksplosjonen med å takle stress på et utdanningssenter drevet av Flyktninghjelpen i Beirut. Foto: Sam Tarling/Flyktninghjelpen

3. Spre ordet

Ved å dele informasjon om flyktningsaken kan du utfordre “fake news” og bidra til å skape mer forståelse og samarbeid.

Det er fullt av feilinformasjon på internett. Flyktninger blir ofte omtalt som lykkejegere, eller til og med som potensielle terrorister som er ute etter å ødelegge vestlige samfunn. Disse påstandene er ikke sanne - og enda verre, de er nedverdigende.

Flyktninger er mennesker, akkurat slik som alle andre, og de fortjener absolutt ikke å bli sett på som “fienden”. Det er ikke noe “oss” og “dem” – bare oss.

Ingen av oss ønsker å leve i et samfunn preget av urettferdighet og åpenbare løgner, derfor bør vi gjøre vårt beste for å si fra når vi støter på slike “fake news”. Lærte du noe av artiklene våre, for eksempel? Del dem, eller fortell en venn om det!

Det aller første skrittet mot å løse et problem, er å gjøre det kjent.

***

Det er lett å kjenne på håpløsheten når man leser og hører historier om alle de fryktelige situasjonene mennesker på flukt opplever. Men det er viktig å huske på at ingen situasjon er håpløs før alle har mistet håpet. Og hvorfor skal vi miste håpet når det er så mye vi kan gjøre, og når menneskene som er på flukt selv fortsetter å håpe om, og søke etter, et bedre liv?

Enhver stor forandring i verden starter med små steg. Ta ditt første i dag.