Fathi Khalifa, 42, fled his native Libya twenty years ago, following a crackdown in his hometown of Sabha. He has since lived in Morocco and, most recently, in Holland, where he settled three years ago as a refugee.
Trained as a chemical engineer in Russia, he spoke out against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi on international news channels and was subsequently threatened by the officials of the regime and by the dictator himself. He received letters demanding his silence; two close friends were jailed because of a telephone call from him.
“I was under the regime’s eyes all my life,” he says.
Watch his reaction when he learns that the dictator was killed:
Will you show your support for refugees like Fathi with a Blue Key?
For just $5, you will join the Blue Key community, a growing contingent of Americans who are standing up for the world’s most vulnerable people: refugees.
With your key you will open the door to a new life that was unexpectedly—through no fault of their own—closed to refugees.
Believe it or not, Mother’s Day is coming up fast! This year, through a partnership with GlobalGiving, we are really excited to offer some unique Mother’s Day gifts that will bring a smile to a refugee while also putting a smile on Mom’s face.
As a thank-you for donating $25 or more to our ongoing work aiding recovery from the famine in the Horn of Africa, you’ll receive a Blue Key Pendant- a symbol for the millions of refugees worldwide who no longer have a place to call home. And, with your donation, you’ll help provide 1 refugee family with a kitchen set containing a cooking pot, cup, table spoon and deep plates- vital tools for families still recovering from famine and drought.
Or, as a free thank you gift for donations of $25 to our ongoing work aiding refugees who fled the recent turmoil in Libya and still do not have a home to return to, you’ll receive a Blue Key lapel pin- a symbol for the millions of refugees worldwide who no longer have a place to call home. With your donation, you’ll help provide 5 blankets for refugees who were forced to flee during Libya’s recent violence and still do not have a permanent home.
How does it work?
For donations to certain GlobalGiving projects by USA for UNHCR, you will receive a free gift. Simply visit the links below and select “Add to Cart” under the gift photo. Please note, in order for your gift to arrive by Mother’s Day (May 13th) you must place your order no later than Sunday, May 6th.
- Donate $25+ to UNHCR’s work in Libya and receive a Blue Key Pin
- Donate $25+ to UNHCR’s work in the Horn of Africa and receive a Blue Key Pendant
Questions? Post them in the comments or tweet us @UNRefugeeAgency.
By Laura Padoan in London, United Kingdom. Follow Laura on Twitter.
Dressed in skinny jeans and a blazer, she looks every inch the fashionable young Londoner. But Lejla Damon is no regular 19-year-old. “I was born on Christmas Day,” she says with a flick of her glossy brown hair, fixing me with her green-eyed stare. “It was in 1992, in the main hospital in Sarajevo,” she continues.
“My mum was a Bosnian Muslim; she’d been held for some time in a concentration camp where she had been raped repeatedly by a Serb soldier.” Nine months later, the woman gave birth to a girl. “She absolutely hated me. She thought I was evil . . . and that I would grow up to be like the men who abused her. She wanted absolutely nothing to do with me,” Lejla reveals.
A three year-old Lejla arrives in the United Kingdom. © UNHCR/Courtesy of the Damon family
It was an inauspicious start to her life, coinciding with the onset of the siege of the Bosnia and Herzegovina capital, Sarajevo, and descent into Europe’s deadliest conflict since the Second World War. When it was over almost four years later, the former Yugoslavia had disintegrated while almost 200,000 people were dead and 2.7 million forcibly displaced.
Even before the first shots were fired in Bosnia, BBC journalist Dan Damon was working in Slovenia covering the 10-day war of independence in June 1991 and its aftermath, together with his photographer wife Sian. The following year, the couple managed to steal their way into Sarajevo, where for seven days Dan was the only western TV reporter in the city.
The couple were determined to remain in Sarajevo, even staying as guests of Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and in the rooms of UN military commander General Philippe Morillon, when he was absent from the city. Under constant artillery, rocket, mortar and sniper fire, the city’s 400,000 inhabitants struggled to find food, medicine and water, and thousands of civilians were killed and wounded.
Dan and Sian were reporting from a hospital when they met Lejla’s mother, who told them she did not want to keep her child. Aware that what they were doing was illegal, they made the decision – with her mother’s consent – to take the baby out of the country to safety. They called her Lejla, after a Bosnian diplomat who had helped them. “They saw that it was a horrible situation for the baby to be in and they didn’t want to just leave me there,” Lejla explains. “Obviously it wasn’t the most legitimate exit.”
The couple were no strangers to risk, but the effort to smuggle her out of the country in an armored van, the falsified documents and the years locked in legal battle to adopt her were as tough as anything they had faced in their careers. Eventually they won custody and, at the age of three, their refugee daughter began her life in the United Kingdom.
Growing up in the UK, Lejla was aware of her origins and has twice visited the country of her birth. Last year she went to Sarajevo with her parents for a trip that included a meeting with President Bakir Izetbegović. Despite not speaking the language, she has a strong connection to the country: “I feel extremely relaxed in Sarajevo, but it is very strange because I saw the hospital where I was born and so many graves. You can see the progress, but it’s disappointing there is so much progress still to be made.”
She does not dwell on what might have happened if Dan and Sian had not found her in Sarajevo. “I’ve had a very nice life, I’ve had a good education, I’ve had fun and I’ve done all the things children are meant to do when they’re younger. I’ve been very grateful to my parents,” she confides.
But Lejla has clearly given much thought to tracing her birth mother. “I don’t know whether it would be for the best, especially for someone in her situation. I don’t want to bring up things that aren’t very pleasant at all. I was conceived through something that’s so horrible and a violation of humanity,” Lejla says. “If she said, ‘No, I don’t want to see her,’ I think it would knock me. And I don’t think I’m quite ready for that.”
Living with such a past has, at times, set her apart from her peers. “It’s really strange because people my age have no idea where Bosnia is, they don’t know much about the war because they may have just been born when it happened . . . I see the same attitude towards refugees and asylum-seekers. I think sometimes people are too narrow-minded,” she comments.
“You never get stories by refugees from their point of view and sometimes I feel they do get put down and criticized, which is not fair. Even people my age are very dismissive of refugees. I say, ‘so do you dismiss me?,’ and they say, ‘no, but you’re different.’ I find it worrying that people are so ignorant.”
Lejla says she is inspired by the work that UNHCR does. “I’ve always been aware of it – even in my parents’ photos from Bosnia, the UNHCR logo was in the background.” Between 1992 and 1996, UNHCR coordinated the longest-running humanitarian airlift in history. Some 160,000 tons of food, medicine and other goods were delivered to Sarajevo in more than 12,000 flights. The airlift also evacuated more than 1,100 civilians in need of urgent medical care.
The UN Refugee Agency is still helping tens of thousands of victims of the conflict. Meanwhile, an international conference in Sarajevo next week hopes to raise up to 500 million euros to fund housing solutions for many of the remaining refugees, internally displaced and returnees.
Now studying for a degree in advertising, Lejla is eloquent and passionate about politics and world affairs. She hopes one day to become a war photographer like her mother. Despite some years of teenage rebellion, Lejla obviously idolizes Dan and Sian.
The couple went on to adopt two more children and Dan still regularly reports from conflict zones, most recently covering attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “I want to see the world, and not just the nice bits, and I want to help. That’s definitely my parents’ influence.” Already planning her next visit to Bosnia, it is difficult to imagine a better outcome for this Christmas Day war baby.
Will you show your support for refugees like Lejla with a Blue Key?
For just $5, you will join the Blue Key community, a growing contingent of Americans who are standing up for the world’s most vulnerable people: refugees.
With your key you will open the door to a new life that was unexpectedly—through no fault of their own—closed to refugees.
“I believe Afghan women are strong,” says Selay Ghaffar.
Selay, age 28, was forced to leave her home in Afghanistan in the 1980′s after the Soviet invasion. She lived with her family as a refugee in Iran and then in Pakistan. She always longed to return to Afghanistan, she says, despite the dangers.
For the past several years, Selay has been working with women and girls who are victims of violence. She has run an organization, funded in part by UNHCR, that provides shelter, counseling and other assistance to women who feel that they have nowhere else to go.
Her organization has received threats, including so-called “night letters,” warning staff to stop their work on women’s behalf.
She believes that Afghan women have been suffering for centuries and that it is only now that their suffering is coming to light.
“I want to change the life of Afghan women,” she says. “They should not suffer any more,” Selay says.
Will you help open the door to a better future for refugee women like Selay by ordering your Blue Key today?
Unrest in the Syrian Arab Republic has been mounting since March 2011, leading to displacement of tens of thousands of civilians. As of mid-April 2012, more than 55,000 people are estimated to have fled to the neighboring countries of Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq, putting an increasing strain on the governments and host communities.
In response, the United Nations and its humanitarian partners issued an appeal in March 2012 for $84 million to support Syrian refugees.
The photos below begin to tell the human story of the thousands of refugee families who have sought safety in Lebanon:
Will you help open the door to a better future for refugees like these by ordering your Blue Key today?
Learn more about Syrian refugees: The Syria Regional Response Plan (PDF) outlines current and future needs for some 100,000 Syrian refugees over six months. Led by UNHCR, the plan is the result of a coordinated effort between seven UN agencies, 27 national and international NGOs and partners, and host governments.
By Céline Schmitt in Dungu, Democratic Republic of the Congo
DUNGU, Democratic Republic of the Congo, April 5 (UNHCR) – Sister Angelique is a familiar sight as she bicycles around the dusty town of Dungu on her way to meet women who really do see her as a blessing.
Sister Angelique in Dungu, where she helps vulnerable women, including those abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army. © UNHCR/M.Hofer
That’s because she’s been helping them recover from the trauma of being abducted and abused by the feared Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a brutal Ugandan rebel group that has been terrorizing people in this corner of north-east Democratic Republic of the Congo for years.
“Since 2008, I’ve been taking care of young girls when they come out of the bush after being abducted by the LRA,” the 45-year-old Roman Catholic nun told me while helping three young women bake bread in the center she runs in Dungu to help victims reintegrate and rebuild their lives. Her UNHCR-supported organization also works to restore their hope in the future.
The association, Dynamic Women for Peace, runs basic literacy classes in lingala as well as a wide range of vocational training programs and income-generation activities aimed at helping female LRA victims. These include sewing, baking, cooking, soap making and agriculture. The UN Refugee Agency’s local implementing partner, Centre d’Íntervention Psychologique, has provided equipment and tools.
Not everyone can come to Dungu and that’s where Sister Angelique’s bike comes in useful. She uses it to reach women living in the settlements for internally displaced people that have sprung up near Dungu. Since January, more than 4,000 people have moved to these sites after LRA attacks.
Rose* lives in one such site called Bangapili, where she has been taking the language classes offered by Sister Angelique’s church-affiliated Dynamic Women for Peace. Rose, who is in her 40s, was briefly held by the LRA after a deadly attack on the town of Duru five years ago.
“They killed three people in my house – my eldest son who was 21, my younger sister and my uncle,” she revealed. “Then they took me with them in the bush. But as I was pregnant, the commander said that I was not useful and they released me after two days.” She has not seen her husband since.
After being released, Rose found her surviving children hiding in a field and fled with them the 28 miles to Dungu.
She said lingala is not her mother tongue so the lessons had been very useful in helping her integrate. “I always had many problems with the women here at the market, because we could not communicate. But now, I am feeling much better. I like to learn to read and to write. I like to learn other things,” added Rose, who farms on the land of locals to make money but plans to take a vocational training course to improve her livelihood prospects.
Sister Angelique said the training offered by her organization benefitted not only LRA victims, but also single women or widows with large families. She said that once skills training was over, the association gives a small credit to the women to buy raw materials and start a small business. They pay back the loan when they start making money.
“We have to help them earn enough every day to feed themselves and their children instead of making money here and there or begging their neighbours for backbreaking work in the fields,” the sister stressed.
Twenty-two-year-old Madeleine* is not an LRA victim, but she struggles alone in Dungu to raise three children, including the child of her sister who died a year ago. She took the bakery course offered by Dynamic Women for Peace and now earns the equivalent of about $20 a week for her small family.
“I bought these shoes, pagnes [traditional female garment] and clothes for my children,” she said while proudly showing off the colourful pagnes. “I am happy, but if I have enough money, I would like to study medicine and become a nurse,” added the young woman, whose education was cut short when she left school at 16 after becoming pregnant.
Sister Angelique is proud of the women who come through her center and happy that she has been able to “help them become autonomous.” She is delighted that “the catering service we established with women cooks is very famous in town. We have a high demand to cook for events and seminars.”
The nun said the women change a lot during their time with her organization. “Some were scared to go out, but today, thanks to the activities, they open up,” she said, adding with a smile: “They talk with vivacity and fearlessness.”
But there’s a lot of hard work involved, Sister Angelique admitted. “We lack the means to achieve everything necessary to help these women. Often, it takes a lot of time for women to understand the training,” she explained. “Sometimes, before going to sleep, I ask myself why I continue and then I think that someone has to help these women and I have to make a sacrifice . . . When they tell me their stories, I force myself not to let the tears flow.”
See more photos of internally displaced people in Dungu and Sister Angelique’s work.
* Names changed for protection reasons.
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At least 33 villages have been attacked since January by the LRA, including 13 in March alone. More than 4,230 people have been displaced last month, some for the second or even third time. Around 335,000 people have been displaced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a result of LRA violence since 2008.
For just $5, you will join the Blue Key community, a growing contingent of Americans who are standing up for the world’s most vulnerable people: refugees.
With your key you will open the door to a new life that was unexpectedly—through no fault of their own—closed to refugees.
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