A refugee is a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster. The United Nations reports the global population of people displaced by conflict reached 70.8 million last year.
Increase in global conflict locations, actors and fatalities has led to a catastrophic rise in forcibly displaced people worldwide every year since 2012, and an upward trend in all but two of the last dozen years. Zakat Foundation commits major human and material resources to alleviate the needs of these vulnerable families and children, both in the immediate aftermath of conflict and in the face of structural communal needs. Syria has produced the highest number of refugees at 6.3 million, with Turkey hosting 3.5 million of them. Gaza’s eight camps hold 1.3 million Palestinian refugees (of the world’s 5 million) under the auspices of UNRWA, which has permanently lost $360 million, 30 percent of its budget, to punitive United States’ cuts.
In this video, we interviewed refugee individuals from Somalia, Congo, and Syria. We asked them how they feel about the term “refugee,” and how they would choose to define themselves. All of the individuals in this video are part of Zakat Foundation funded programs including our Safehouses for orphans and widows, Zahraa University, and vocational programs through our partner, RefuSHE.
Zakat Foundation’s work with refugees is both holistic and sustainable. We serve across several continents, doing groundbreaking work in our safehouses, mental health and special needs clinics, vocational programs, and more.
