Glimmers of hope
The Norwegian Refugee Council is an independent humanitarian organisation helping people forced to flee. We work in crises across 31 countries, where we help save lives and rebuild futures.
Even though the people we help live in some of the most distressing situations in the world today, it's not all bleak. Here are some of the glimmers of hope that we caught on camera this year:
Moving into new tents
Naseema, 9, has spent five months under a sheet of plastic. The past month has been freezing cold. Now, the family is moving into an isolated winter tent.
On a barren ground, thousands of families have settled in a cluster of tents. The tented settlement is called Feristan and is located close to Qala-e-naw, the capital of the Badghis province in Afghanistan.
"Before we were displaced because of the drought, we were doing fine. We had a good and safe home. We had enough food, and we stayed warm throughout the winters. Life as displaced is incredibly hard. We’re suffering," says Naseema’s mother, Gul Ghotay, and pulls the green blanket tighter around herself. Her family have survived yet another freezing night. During the night, the temperature had dropped to zero degrees Celsius.
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Education first
When we ask displaced youth about what they want most of all, their answer is education.
"My biggest dream is to work in a restaurant," says Eden. She is one of the over twenty young people who are trained in cookery at the Hitsats refugee camp in the north of Ethiopia.
In Hitsats our team ensures that refugee children and young people, who have fled from neighbouring Eritrea, receive shelter, schooling, vocational training and life under an umbrella of safety. Everybody dreams of a brighter future, which includes pursuing an education.
"I am very happy that I have not wasted my year in the camp. Unlike others, who just sit around doing nothing, I have studied and worked hard," says Eden. During the six-month course, she has learned how to cook various meals, make sauces and bake bread. She has followed lessons in proper kitchen hygiene, learned how to make the table and serve customers.
Tailoring a future for his family
Anas from Syria is one of many who graduated from the Norwegian Refugee Council’s (NRC) vocational training centre in Jordan’s Azraq refugee camp this year. Today, several organisations request the products that the certified tailor and his colleagues produce in the camp.
The NRC-run tailoring workshop is busy – it receives raw material that eager tailoring graduates, the majority of them Syrian refugees, turn into products like jackets, sweaters, NRC staff vests, and baby clothes and blankets.
The workshop benefits people in many ways – while the clothes are made for the camp’s residents, it also gives Anas the income he needs to prepare his family for the cold season that is coming up.
Building classrooms, building future
In the Rutshuru territory, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, many students and teachers are often victims of kidnapping for ransom. At least 7.4 million children in the country, between the ages of five and 17, are unable to attend school.
"Before attending the Norwegian Refugee Council’s catch-up classes, I couldn’t speak any French. Now, I can speak and understand some," says Kavira, a 13-year-old girl who lives with her parents and siblings in Kasave, a small village in Rutshuru.
Vouchers are rebuilding lives
After spending four years in a displacement camp in the Central African Republic, a new house changed Stella and her family’s lives. "This house has made us happy again," she says.
"I receive a voucher that looks like money. With it, I’m able to go to the distribution centre where I choose and get the materials we need when working on the house," Stella explains.
Vouchers are a very efficient way to provide people in need with a dignified form of assistance. In contexts where the provision of cash is not feasible, vouchers are a great alternative: vouchers are not money, but have monetary value and enable beneficiaries to choose the items they need from pre-approved businesses that accept these vouchers. For this project, the vouchers enabled Stella to purchase materials to help her with the rehabilitation of her home.