Khaled Hosseini, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador thanks IKEA co-workers and customers for their support for refugees in Azraq camp in Jordan through the Brighter Lives for Refugees campaign.
Today, there are nearly 15 million refugees globally, half of which are children. Many have no choice but to live in refugee camps, where an absence or lack of light after sunset can have a devastating effect on safety and security. Without light, simple activities such as visiting the toilet, collecting water, returning to the shelter from elsewhere or completing homework after dark can become difficult and dangerous, particularly for women and girls.
Hussein is 34 years old. At age seven he contracted polio and has been in a wheelchair ever since. Hussein is strong and determined. It took him an agonising twenty days to travel seven hundred kilometres in his wheelchair, carrying his infant daughter and his family’s possessions on his lap, from his home in Syria to the border with Jordan. Now, in Al Azraq refugee camp, a lack of light and basic infrastructure make it difficult for him to move about but he says he is resilient. “Light is almost everything in life. We need light to live. There is no life without light.”
Marie is 18 years old. Along with her 14-year-old brother Mohammed she fled Syria after her parents and baby brothers (just four years old and 1.5 years) were executed by soldiers. Alone and fearful, the teenage siblings walked to Jordan and found safety in Al Azraq refugee camp and the support of UNHCR. Today they are trying to move on from their trauma and rebuild their lives. "Light is everything - with light everything is normal and easy." Marie. "At night I am not really afraid, but my mind does play tricks on me in the dark. Sometimes I think there are ghosts.” Mohammed
Marie is 18 years old. Along with her 14-year-old brother Mohammed she fled Syria after her parents and baby brothers (just four years old and 1.5 years) were executed by soldiers. Alone and fearful, the teenage siblings walked to Jordan and found safety in Al Azraq refugee camp and the support of UNHCR. Today they are trying to move on from their trauma and rebuild their lives. "Light is everything - with light everything is normal and easy." Marie. "At night I am not really afraid, but my mind does play tricks on me in the dark. Sometimes I think there are ghosts.” Mohammed
This is Ali. He is 43 years old. From the suburbs of Damascus in Syria, Ali travelled to Cuba where he learnt fluent Spanish and trained to become a dentist. 15 years later and his life has changed dramatically – his dental practice and home in Syria have been destroyed and he is a refugee. Al Azraq camp provides him and his family with safety but at what cost? "What can we do as humans without light? I am missing humanity. We escaped certain death in Syria just to face a kind of death slowly here in this camp. I hope that the country that created the alphabet will once again shine back to original glory."
Sarah is a 52-year-old refugee from Hama in Syria. She fled the fighting with her family and now lives in Al Azraq refugee camp in Jordan. The camp has no electricity and the long dark nights present their own challenges and barriers. Solar street lights and solar lanterns provided by UNHCR are helping residents in the camp to feel safer. “I am frightened of the dark, there are animals in the dark I think wild dogs. For single women the night is a frightening place. Being in the dark I feel like I am in jail.”
Mustaf is 72 years old. He suffered a stroke in 2008 and has been in a wheelchair since. It took him seven days in his wheelchair to reach the Jordanian border with Syria. He relies on UNHCR to survive after his family was unable to make the crossing from Syria with him. “In the dark I am afraid that people will fall over me and my wheelchair. I can't see at night. In the night no one holds me. I have nothing. I am just waiting for the morning prayer."
Shamasa is 95 years old and a refugee from a small village in Syria. Today she lives in Al Azraq refugee camp with members of her extended family but yearns for her sons and home. “The young girls are very afraid in the dark but I am an old brave woman, my heart feels secure. I have so many wishes. I want to go back home to a better life. I miss my five sons. They are all back in Syria. I wish they were here with me every minute of the day."
This is Wala (aged 19). She fled the brutal fighting in Syria with her two small children, baby Mohammad and little girl Shema and found safety in Al Azraq refugee camp. Without electricity and light, life at night can be uncertain and frightening. "Life without light is nothing. When it’s dark I don’t know what’s going on around me and that’s frightening.”
TThis is Mohammad (65 years). He led his extended family from Syria to safety in Jordan and has kept them together and focussed as they wait out the war in Al Azraq refugee camp in Jordan. Without electricity and light, Mohammad is reminded of the other costs of the war in Syria. “A human cannot be without light. Light is all about humanity – it illuminates human darkness.”
The IKEA Foundation, UNHCR’s largest private sector partner, believes that every child deserves a safe place to call home. Since 2010 the IKEA Foundation has partnered with UNHCR, helping to provide shelter, care and education to families and children within refugee camps and surrounding communities in parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Watch this video to understand how a biogas plant works in a refugee camp in Bangladesh, which is set up with your support.
Watch this video to understand how a solar farm will work in a refugee camp in Jordan, which will be set up with your support.
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