This World Refugee Week, we’re celebrating the incredibly brave children who are healing after being forced to leave their homes due to conflict.
Many of the children who attend War Child projects have had to leave behind their belongings, their homes and often members of their families, and find themselves in an alien environment. However, their resilience and hope for a better future is inspiring.
This year, the theme of World Refugee Week is ‘healing’, we’d like to share the stories of 3 children who are on their journey to becoming healthy again.
After years of war, Lamiya and her family fled their hometown with the hundreds of thousands of Yazidi people whose homes and villages have been destroyed, they now live in a refugee camp in northern Iraq.
Lamiya tells us about how she is healing from her past, and how the War Child programmes are helping her do so.
“We learn about identity; like who am I? Who are we? And about feelings. The feelings I have towards my friends.
Previously we didn’t know how to make good friendships. We didn’t know how to strengthen our relationships. Our friendships are stronger now, after attending the programme.”
Having lived in the camp for over 4 years, naturally she is homesick.
“I want us to return to our villages and for our homes to be rebuilt,” she states.
“I want for us to start going to school there. And to be together with our people. I wish that they would rebuild our homes.”
She also shared her hopes and aspirations for the future.
“I want to have a peaceful future. A future without any problems. I would like to be a lawyer. I want to help my people and to sort out their problems.”
Although Hayat is 18 years old, she has never attended a school. She lives in an IDP camp after it became too dangerous for her family to stay at their home in Al Hudayah.
With War Child’s support, her family were able to buy two sheep and the tools they needed. She hopes that by taking care of the sheep she will be able to raise a herd, and the sheep will help to support her family.
I am looking forward to the day on which I will not have to go out to work. I want to stay at home and enjoy meeting up with my friends.
When I think of the future, I see my brother becoming a young man who helps me shoulder the responsibilities of our family. I see myself having a kiosk where I sell some products.
Patrick started his War Child journey when he attended a project which helped him gain the skills to manage the stress of living as a refugee. He then went on to be a youth facilitator for our VoiceMore project in DRC.
Patrick recently visited our London office; we had the pleasure of speaking to him about his experiences.
He describes himself as being ‘shy and nervous’ before his work on the VoiceMore project. However, he attended school, and graduated just before the pandemic in 2020, and although he ‘lost hope’ he feels that now he’s ‘regained it’.
Patrick also told us about the activities that the project does to help children heal from the stress living as a refugee, including ‘music sessions to support children’, ‘aerobic exercises’ and ‘awareness sessions.’
"These children have that high risk of having mental health issues. So, we use music to heal from trauma, from stress.”
Every day, our local teams are in communities and in refugee camps creating safe spaces for children to play, learn and access psychological support. We will never give up on children affected by conflict.
