by Adel Sarkozi, CARE International Rapid Response Team

Refugee children from Syria © 2013CARE

The conflict in Syria, which began in month 2011, has left more than 10.5 million people throughout the region in need of humanitarian assistance. As of May 2013, more than 1.5 million Syrians had crossed into neighboring countries, including Jordan (465,000), Lebanon (477,000) and Egypt (69,000) where CARE is on the ground working to help meet the refugee's most urgent needs. Find out more about our work with Syrian refugees >

Abud, 28, crossed the border from Syria to Jordan two weeks ago. He had to wait a week before being able to do so.

"There were about 500 people stranded at the border with some waiting for over 20 days ... I lived and slept in the street for a week while waiting to cross as accommodation was too expensive," he says.

This was the second time he’s come to Jordan. The first time, months back, he came with his family and there were no issues with the border crossing. He left his wife and three young children in Amman and went back to Syria because his in-laws have been sick, and his wife was worried about them.

Now Abud is with his wife and children again but with the larger family still separated, they continue worrying.

"It’s like being neither here nor there. We want to go back home. We can’t live like this" he says. He wants the world to help.

Maysaa and Khalil do too. But they are not Syrian refugees. They are Iraqis who have been living a life of limbo in Jordan for more than a decade. At the peak of the civil conflict in Iraq in 2006-2007, nearly 5 million people were driven from their homes. Today, nearly 1 million Iraqis are still living as refugees in neighboring countries, according to government estimates, with more than 126,000 of them registered with UNHCR. Up to 300 Iraqis still flee to Jordan every month.

The birthplaces of Khalil’s children – the first born in Iraq, the second in Kuwait and the two younger ones in Jordan – clearly mark the family’s disrupted past and in many ways its uncertain future. Although Khalil and his family received news of resettlement to the United States in 2010, they are still waiting for the final confirmation.

The waiting is becoming harder as "our problems progress," says Khalid. He means finding it harder and harder to pay rent and survive from one day to another. Most Iraqis have no residency or work permits, and live a life of poverty, insecurity and frustration.

A recent assessment by CARE Jordan found that most Iraqis rely on "subsistence-level" assistance – their expenses are exceeding their income by $236 a month. More than 40 percent of the interviewed families reported skipping one meal a day and being regularly hungry.

Maysaa, another Iraqi who has been living with her four children in Jordan since 2005, says this past year has been like a year with 10 years crammed in it. "I grew so old during this time with all the worries and the stress" she says. She hasn’t paid her rent for four months and her family is at risk of being evicted.

Both Khalil and Maysaa share their woes in CARE’s East Amman Iraqi Refugee Center, the only agency in Jordan that’s providing emergency cash assistance to Iraqi families facing increasing hardships. For 10 years, CARE has helped Iraqis with a range of emergency and long-term programs, including livelihood opportunities, psychological support and financial assistance.

"But assistance is never going to solve our problems. It helps in emergency situations but we fear for our future. The Syrian refugees face the same tragedy like us now. Perhaps the problem in Syria is more temporary than ours. I hope so. I hope they can go back home soon. But us…," says Khalid, shaking his head.

In a poor, overcrowded neighborhood in Beirut, elderly Sana raises her shoulders. "What about us?" she asks. "We have been refugees all our lives." She is Palestinian.

Note: As the Syrian crisis continues to unfold and grow, a search for long-term solution for Iraqi refugees in Jordan is currently on hold. Despite the decrease in funding to assist Iraqi refugees and scaling up of its response to assist Syrian refugees, CARE Jordan continues to ensure that the Iraqi refugees do not become invisible and their case is not forgotten.

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by Adel Sarkozi, CARE International Rapid Response Team

In this informal camp in Mount Lebanon area, 33 families live in tents and temporary shelters in an olive grove owned by a local family, headed by Mr. Ali as he is known by the refugees. © 2013 Adel Sarkozi/CARE International

The conflict in Syria, which began in month 2011, has left more than 10.5 million people throughout the region in need of humanitarian assistance. As of May 2013, more than 1.5 million Syrians had crossed into neighboring countries, including Jordan (465,000), Lebanon (477,000) and Egypt (69,000) where CARE is on the ground working to help meet the refugee's most urgent needs. Find out more about our work with Syrian refugees >

In Lebanon, 60 percent of Syrian refugees live in houses and apartments, while approximately 30 percent are forced to live in informal camps, unfinished houses, derelict buildings or garages.

About 25 miles south of Beirut, in an olive grove surrounded by rocky hills, there are patches of blue and white – they are the tents and temporary shelters that house 33 Syrian refugee families.

Mr Ali, as he is known to the refugees, is the owner of the grove. He is Lebanese. About eight months ago, after hearing the school where the refugees were taking shelter was to reopen and the families were going to be evicted, he decided to help. He offered his land and helped families erect their tents and shelters.

The first to move in was a 51-year-old Syrian refugee who prefers not to be named. He moved with his wife, six children and 18-month-old granddaughter.

"I put up the first tent. We had nothing then – no water, no electricity, just a candle," he says. He also recalls how in those early days, during a four-day-long storm, his tent was filled with water and eventually collapsed.

Week by week, more families joined them in the olive grove.

Muhamed, his wife and their newborn baby are one of the newly-arrived families to the camp. They fled Syria eight months ago, after he was jailed and beaten. Once they arrived in Beirut, the family struggled to pay the rent and Muhamed couldn’t find work.

Despite the hardships, Muhamed says life in the camp is more bearable. He says it feels like a community and people support each other.

The man who moved in first helped each new family build a tent for shelter. Mr Ali provided the materials with funding from a local organization. He also built the families a water and sanitation block and a prayer room.

The limited facilities are basic: there are only two toilets for women and two for men that are shared by more than 160 people.

More and more refugees are forced out by increasingly high rental costs and into these kinds of camps. Mr Ali’s olive grove can host more people, and he knows of about 100 families wanting to move in.

"They are on a waiting list," he says. But without help or resources to build new shelters and provide water, sanitation and electricity, they can’t be accommodated.

"We want to go back. When the bombings and the air raids stop, we want to go back. I used to be a farmer. I had my own land and house. I miss my land. I miss my home," says a man in the informal camp. "But we don’t know how long this will take. It could take long time ... longer than we thought."

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by Adel Sarkozi, CARE International Rapid Response Team

Yasmin, an 11-year-old girl, who in quiet words informs you: "My father has been kidnapped about a year ago. We heard that he was tortured…. then that he was killed." © 2013 CARE

The conflict in Syria, which began in month 2011, has left more than 10.5 million people throughout the region in need of humanitarian assistance. As of May 2013, more than 1.5 million Syrians had crossed into neighboring countries, including Jordan (465,000), Lebanon (477,000) and Egypt (69,000) where CARE is on the ground working to help meet the refugee's most urgent needs. Find out more about our work with Syrian refugees >

Meet Yasmin, an 11-year-old Syrian girl living as a refugee in Beirut, who says quietly, "My father was kidnapped about a year ago. We heard that he was tortured … then that he was killed."

It sounds so shocking that I almost don't want to hear it. I stare at her beautiful face, her bright eyes, her hands resting on her chest holding on to a necklace adorned by a plastic flower.

She lives with her three siblings, her mother, another widow called Nada and her daughter. They are all Syrian refugees. Her mother is away working and I pick up the rest of the story from Nada.

They all fled to Beirut four months ago. After three months of taking shelter in a mosque, they were evicted.

Now they are in a two-room apartment with few belongings. Nada's words echo what I've been hearing all week from refugees living in urban areas. "I earn $100 a month cleaning houses. Yasmin's mother earns about the same. How can we live on this when our rent alone is $400 a month?"

The children have to stay at home alone all day while their mothers go out and look for work. They can't go to school.

At my next destination, I arrive at a room with 10 women seated in a semi-circle, some with their children sitting at their feet and more standing in the doorway.

They are also Syrian refugees. Some have been in Lebanon as long as eight months, others only two weeks.

"When I arrived, I felt isolated, I didn't know anyone. Now there are so many Syrians here. It feels like a Syria away from home," says one of the women.

"Our home in Syria got bombed. We saw it with our eyes. That's when we decided it was time for us to leave. But, in Syria, life was much cheaper. Here we can't even afford basic things," says Amina who arrived two and a half months ago. The others nod. 

A visibly distressed Hasnaa, a 25-year-old widow with two children, came two weeks ago after her husband was killed in a clash. She is staying with her sister and her family. Her 6-year-old son Ali is stretched on the floor at her feet. He is restless and rubs his red, swollen eyes every few minutes.

"The children can't sleep," she says as if reading my thoughts. "They are afraid all the time. I am too," she adds.

A man sitting in the center of the room begins to sing. Everyone stops to listen. I ask the translator what is the song about. "You're a criminal … You're a coward … You killed my father … You killed my father," comes the translation.

Silence falls over the room as a boy in the doorway area repeats, "You killed my father."

The air is filled with despair, defeat and sadness. Then the tears come – from the floor, from the chairs, from the doorway.

I keep thinking to myself, I'm surrounded by women and children who have seen their homes destroyed, their near and dear ones killed. They fled in search for safety. They might be physically safe now, but what about their souls?

They need basic things so that they can carry on living. They need healing so that in some corner of their hearts they can carry on hoping.

They are part of a shockingly large number of refugees who fled Syria – 1.5 million total and close to a half a million in Lebanon alone. They are trapped in what is the largest humanitarian crisis to date, and what seems like the dead end of history, with only the future to fully judge and find appropriate measures.

NOTE: CARE Lebanon plans to support urban refugees and host families in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, which hosts more than 90,000 refugees, to meet their most basic and pressing needs, including access to information and services; shelter; livelihood opportunities; and psycho-social support. These areas receive a flux of Syrian refugees. Though the Syrian refugees here receive some assistance, especially from local organizations and host communities, there are still many needs that yet have not been met.

Names have been changed

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by Adel Sarkozi, CARE International Rapid Response Team

Dalal spreads her remaining medication, ID, referral form on the table. Uses the tissues to wipe her constant tears. © 2013 CARE

The conflict in Syria, which began in month 2011, has left more than 10.5 million people throughout the region in need of humanitarian assistance. As of May 2013, more than 1.5 million Syrians had crossed into neighboring countries, including Jordan (465,000), Lebanon (477,000) and Egypt (69,000) where CARE is on the ground working to help meet the refugee's most urgent needs. Find out more about our work with Syrian refugees >

Medication, a passport, referral forms and tissues are laid out on a table in CARE’s urban refugee center in Amman. They belong to Dalal, a 69-year-old widow.

The passport and referral forms help refugees register with the United Nations so that they can receive assistance. The tissues are for the constant tears she sheds.

"It’s getting worse in Syria," Dalal says. "I speak to relatives who are still there and they say more homes are being destroyed. They are scared. They want to leave. But they either don’t have the money or they can’t come into Jordan because of the border. So many now would just rather stay and die there."

Dalal arrived in Jordan in December 2012. She spent the first few months in Za’atari camp with her three sons and their families. Then they left for Amman. She explains, "It was too hot, there wasn’t enough food, not safe, too many problems there."

In Amman, she is staying by herself. She is not feeling well and does not want to impose on her three sons who are married and have families. She tries to survive on borrowed money and assistance she receives from CARE.

"For the first month I was in Amman, I ate only bread and thyme. My children don’t have food for their children. How can I expect them to help me? I have been a widow for 30 years and raised the children by myself. It wasn’t easy, but not as hard as now," she says. "I love Syria. I want to go back as soon as it’s possible."

In Amman, weeks passed before she ventured out, partly because her health was getting worse, and partly because she felt scared and unwanted. She cries often.

Her biggest worry is that she is running out of the medication she brought with her and she will not be able to buy more as services are overstretched and low on medication, which Dalal cannot afford anyway.  She asks, "When I run out, what will I do?"

Note: Although there were fewer refugees crossing into Jordan in May 2013, there are concerns about how to best respond to the probable influx when the borders reopen. CARE acknowledges the severe stress the influx of refugees places on host governments and communities as well as on humanitarian organizations to provide sufficient health care, food, shelter, education and security. Jordan is already hosting nearly half a million Syrians refugees who have fled the conflict. Estimates show that by the end of 2013, the number could rise to 1.2 million, equivalent to one-fifth of Jordan’s population.

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by Adel Sarkozi, CARE International Rapid Response Team

Mahmoud's neighbourhood, poor, and home to about 70,000 Syrian refugees. © 2013 CARE

The conflict in Syria, which began in month 2011, has left more than 10.5 million people throughout the region in need of humanitarian assistance. As of May 2013, more than 1.5 million Syrians had crossed into neighboring countries, including Jordan (465,000), Lebanon (477,000) and Egypt (69,000) where CARE is on the ground working to help meet the refugee's most urgent needs. Find out more about our work with Syrian refugees >

Most Syrian refugees fleeing their country cross the borders to neighboring countries by bus, car or foot. In Mahmoud's case, it was by ambulance.

We first meet him, grey hair falling out from underneath his yellow turban at CARE's urban refugee center in Amman, Jordan. He has the appearance of someone who has been through a lot.

One afternoon at the end of 2012 in his home town of Daara, Syria, near the border with Jordan, a bomb fell near his house. Half of the house was destroyed and Mahmoud lost two fingers off his left hand. His wife, Arabia, lost her right eye. Their elder son, in his early 30s, was injured in his right shoulder.

"But we are grateful that the younger children didn't get hit," Mahmoud says.

Three weeks after the bombing, they were in the Za'atari camp in Jordan. Mahmoud came with his wife, six children, his daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.

But Mahmoud missed his home and was worried about extended family members. Ten days later he went back home alone, leaving his family in Za'atari. 

"I was worried but I will keep going back until I'm killed, if that's my fate," he says quietly.

The morning the house was destroyed, Mahmoud talking with a few relatives and neighbors. He says, "We were talking about what's been happening, about what can happen next."

He remembers hearing the explosion. Then, he woke up in an ambulance, badly wounded in his right knee. In the ambulance with him were 13 other Syrians also wounded from the explosion. They were all transported to Jordan.

He joined his family again in Za'atari and, when he was better, they left for Irbid, a town in the north of Jordan.

"It was too hot and too dusty. My wife suffers from asthma. We were living at the outskirts of the camp, far from everything." he describes. "It was very isolating. It was hard living there."

Their journey to urban refugees is marked by searching and struggling to find a place that they can afford. Irbid turned out not to be an option. They couldn't afford the $300 a month rent. Word came from other refugees that rent in Amman was cheaper. So they set out on the road again. A month ago, the family settled in Marka Al-Janubyah, a poor neighbourhood of Amman hosting about 70,000 refugees.

The family lives in three-bedroom flat. Inside there is barely anything. Mattresses line the walls, open suitcases dominate the corners and folded blankets the family received in Za'atari are piled in one of the rooms.

Though the rent is cheaper than in Irbid, the family struggles to survive day to day. The two sons spend each day in search of work.

"We found nothing. Once we were offered a job, but it was too far from where we live and the wage wouldn't even cover the transport. They tell us that they can't hire us without work permits – they are afraid of being fined," says 25-year-old Muhamed, who has finished his first degree in English literature. Were it not for the conflict in Syria, he says he now would be studying for his master's degree.

Mahmoud also has attempted to find work, even though he has the injured knee and hand. He also has only one kidney and suffers from chronic diabetes.

While the men are out looking for work, Arabia and her daughter-in-law struggle to prepare food. They normally cook something once a day, often the only meal they have. The family eat the same thing for days.

"We haven't had fish or meat for months. We can't afford to buy any of that. Even a melon is just too expensive," says Arabia as she shows us her kitchen, and points to a pot, the only thing she bought with her from home.

"I miss my house, my kitchen and having people around," she says. "Here I don't even know the neighbors in the building."

"We had an olive grove. We had everything that we needed. Now I have the owner knocking on my door asking for the late rent. I am ashamed. When I think of our lives in Syria before this … I miss that time when we were all together, in peace," says Mahmoud.

Note: Mahmoud is one of the more than 110,000 Syrian refugees who receive assistance from CARE's urban refugee center in Amman. In Mahmoud's case, CARE has provided the family with cash to help them cover basic living costs. CARE is expanding our response in Jordan, setting up refugee centers in four other urban areas with high numbers of refugees and will be playing a key role when the new refugee camp in Azraq opens this summer.

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by Adel Sarkozi, CARE International Rapid Response Team

30-year-old Manal living in the camp with her husband and 3-month-old baby; she is worried about her baby who has not received any vaccinations and is suffering from allergies. © 2013 Adel Sarkozi/CARE International.

The conflict in Syria, which began in month 2011, has left more than 10.5 million people throughout the region in need of humanitarian assistance. As of May 2013, more than 1.5 million Syrians had crossed into neighboring countries, including Jordan (465,000), Lebanon (477,000) and Egypt (69,000) where CARE is on the ground working to help meet the refugee's most urgent needs. Find out more about our work with Syrian refugees >

Manal, a 30-year-old Syrian woman, gave birth to a baby in Beirut, Lebanon two months ago. Manal says that she never thought that her first baby would be born as a refugee.

Although she is grateful she could give birth in a health center in Beirut, she is worried about her child's health, and fears that she can no longer access health services.

"My baby hasn't been vaccinated. He was sick and I went to the clinic but they asked me to pay. How could I? I had to turn back."

When Manal's husband could not find work and rent prices went up, life in Beirut became increasingly difficult. The family decided to move to an informal camp, about 25 miles south of Beirut. They knew another family in the camp and stayed with them until they got their own tent. They are one of 33 families living in an olive grove in blue and white tents and temporary shelters raised on rocky terraces.

The family feels less isolated here, and the refugees help each other. But Manal is concerned about her baby's health, especially with the onset of the summer months.

"He is suffering from rashes, and the heat, and there are a lot of insects here. I have no baby food for him or medication. Often I boil rice, and when we finish eating it, the water I used to boil the rice in is our next meal," she says. "I have also been sick, but can't afford the doctor. I have no sanitary napkins."

She feels helpless, she says, as she keeps fanning her child inside the tent, which leaks when it rains.

Nada, a 27-year-old Syrian refugee is raising her four children, including an 18-month-old son alone in Amman, Jordan. Her husband is trapped in Syria and has been unable to join them.

27-year-old Ralia about to give birth by end of June. Ralia lives with 37 refugee families in a school. 31 families have been in the school for over a year with extended family joining them over the last few months. © 2013 Adel Sarkozi/CARE International.

Under her long, black headscarf, Nada's face is pale and her eyes are red and heavy. Often, she feels uneasy to venture out by herself.

"I am scared," she says. "I went a few times to ask for assistance. But I am ashamed; I have never had to queue up before asking, begging for help."

She sleeps with her children in one windowless room in the basement on the bare floor, as there are not enough mattresses. "I am not used to this," she says shaking her head, looking around her. "I want everything to calm down so that we can go back. I want my life back."

Ralia, a 27-year-old Syrian refugee woman living in Mazboud, Lebanon, was due to give birth in eight days when we saw her at the beginning of June. Her baby will be raised in a school where 37 refugee families have been seeking shelter. The first children he will get to know and play with will also be refugees.

"I am feeling ok. It hasn't been a difficult pregnancy. All I want is for my son – he is a boy! – is to grow up at home in Syria," says Ralia.

Note: In Lebanon, CARE will support urban refugees, people living in informal camps and host communities to meet their most basic and pressing needs, including access to information and services; shelter; livelihood opportunities; and psychological and social support.

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Nour's Letter.

I am a 19-year-old Syrian man. I am the fourth son of an educated father and an illiterate mother, but I was always among the best students in my class, especially in sciences. When I was young, my dream was to be an engineer. But I studied law first and wanted to pursue studies in international law. But with what has happened in my country, that dream didn't come true. I had to leave it behind me and come to the dear country of Jordan. My suffering here began as I started working as a laborer in order to guarantee a decent life for my family. In this way, I lost my dream and the dreams of all the young people of Syria, who exchanged their dream for the need to just stay alive now.

Note: Nour is a 19-year-old male refugee who volunteers at the CARE East Amman Refugee Center.

Amir's Letter.

My name is Amir. I am 33 years old. Here is my story, in brief.

I lived for a long time in a foreign country, far from my beloved homeland of Syria and far from my family, my relatives, my loved ones, and my friends. I did this in order to work and earn money for a house. So that I can get married and settle down and live in my home and have a beautiful family (the dream of every young Syrian). When I had enough money for a house, I returned to Syria and I did buy a house with the guidance of God. But I lived in it for a short time because the Arab Spring began in my country. The bombing began. My precious house, which I had worked hard for, built from the ground, and looked after day and night, was destroyed. So was my dream. My family got scattered throughout the country, and in other countries. I live alone now in a foreign country and I anxiously wait to be reunited with my family.

Thank you.

Hint's Letter.

I'm 26 and I am from a city called Shahba in Syria. I grew up there but went to Halap to continue my university studies. There I met young people from all over Syria, and made some very good friends. I returned home after my studies, and found work as a public servant. Then the fighting started. My family had an internet café. It got broken into. It was tense, hostile. We left Syria. Now I am happy that I can volunteer for CARE. All I want is peace and hope for Syria and all countries suffering like mine. I want to go back and achieve what I planned to do.

Note: Hint is a 26-year-old female refugee who volunteers at the CARE East Amman Refugee Center.

Anas' Letter.

"Do not try to play with life as life will write upon you what life has planned, willed. Life will not make you the king, but it will make you live a life of dreaming only to reach the throne."

This sentence expresses the life of Anas, who is a young man of 24 but carries the features of someone who is 50 years old, with sunken eyes, deep wrinkles, and a tightly-closed mouth.

He used to leave every morning to the university, carrying a notebook of dreams and hopes of building a beautiful future. He used to return to his club and work out so that he could carry out his dream.

He stopped in front of a stoplight. Its colors − red, green, and yellow − were like the colors of life: red for the despairing, green for the optimistic, and yellow for the rebellious.

Unfortunately, the color of the stoplight was red, which meant: "Stop. You can't achieve your dreams."

It was March 18, 2011.

This was the day when everything changed, everything that he has planned and thought out.

The young man Anas stood there, astonished, in front of this color that flowed in the streets of his country – a country that he is madly in love with.

He stood there, astonished, in front of his university, which became a combat zone.

He stood there, astonished, in front of his club, which got shut down.

He stood there, astonished.

He stood there, astonished, at the airport, about to leave, knowing that his dreams would be lost in this vast world.

And after Anas, who among us will be able to achieve our dreams?

Note: Anas is a former Syrian bodybuilding champion and Damascus kickboxing champion.

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by Niandou Ibrahim, May 17, 2013

"My daughter returns from far away, a true miracle," repeats Adama Issaka without ceasing. She caresses and holds her daughter Firdaoussou tightly. They look each other in the eyes for a long time then both break out in laughter.

Firdaoussou is 2 years old and really has returned from far away. She has spent nearly half of her life fighting death from malnutrition. She won this fight and now gets to celebrate it every day with her mother in this touching complicity, imbued with smiles, winks and tenderness.

Firdaoussou was born in the village of Bongoukoirey, in the Tillabéry region of Niger. She was raised by her mother alone while her father was in exile somewhere in Côte d'Ivoire. The little girl grew normally during the first 10 months of her life, breastfed by her mother. It was in March 2012 when Firdaoussou started suffering from malnutrition at less than a year of age.

"A big number of children fell ill, wasted away and died. I was desperate for a moment. Toward the month of August I thought Firdaoussou was going to die. She had lost so much weight," remembers Issaka with sadness.

She was not alone: malnutrition was widespread across the region due to a food crisis. A joint press release issued by the government of Niger, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and several international aid agencies rang the alarm bell in March 2012 saying:

The situation of the people, especially of the women and children, is quickly getting worse. The combination of a totality of factors, among them the agricultural and pasture deficits of the previous season, the price explosion of staple food, the depreciation of cattle and the rising levels of indebtedness of the households have considerably weakened the revenues and the access to nutrition of many families. For these people, the lean season has already begun. They don't have any food storage left until the next harvest, which is scheduled for October.

In the village of Bongoukoirey, the women's network Mata Masu Dubara (MMD) fights to save their children from malnutrition. This group, composed of 99 women, organized several years ago to strengthen their resilience. These women work together to protect their harvests from climate related disasters and have developed a number of strategies with the support of CARE. They have created savings and loan associations which enable them to generate more individual revenue. They also set up a granary to store and protect grain in order to prevent shortages of stocks which usually occur between March and September every year. In addition, they have planted vegetable gardens in order to enrich their children's nutrition.

CARE offers training sessions to help these women gain the skills they need to be successful in their efforts and to prevent the food crisis from worsening. "Emergency response costs between 70 and 80 percent more than prevention," says Johannes Schoors, CARE Niger Country Director.

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by Carmen Tremblay, senior emergency response manager for CARE Canada. Carmen traveled to Chad in April to support CARE's emergency response to increasing humanitarian needs in the country.

CARE assisting refugees in Dosseye Camp in southern Chad. © 2013 CARE

May 24, 2013 – Many of us do not think of Chad when we think of an emergency. The country is rarely in the news, dwarfed by larger conflicts around the world.

However, the landlocked state sits in a volatile neighborhood, with Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, Central African Republic and Cameroon to the south, and Nigeria and Niger to the west.

So, when trouble occurs in these surrounding countries, where do people tend to flee? Chad.

In early 2013, the UNHCR estimated that there were more than half a million displaced people in Chad – this includes refugees, asylum-seekers and internally-displaced persons (IDPs).

The presence of over 300,000 refugees – the majority of whom are from Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR) – weighs heavily on Chad's limited resources, as the country is one of the poorest in the world.

CARE began operations in Chad in 1975, implementing both humanitarian and development programming, with a strong focus on meeting the needs of the refugee populations fleeing violence in their own countries.  

When I visited a number of refugee camps in Chad in late April of this year, I was struck by the vulnerabilities of these displaced and traumatized populations, particularly the women and children.

To the south, the recent political turmoil in the Central African Republic (CAR) has led to a new wave of people seeking refuge in Chad over the last few months. According to the UNHCR, more than 6,500 people have left CAR in 2013 to escape the renewed fighting, looting and instability of this often forgotten crisis. Many of the newly-arrived refugees are elderly, sick, pregnant women, children or mentally and physically disabled people. These new arrivals are being integrated into existing camps in southern Chad, where CARE works.

"The recent influx of refugees has greatly strained resources at Chadian camps," says Bonaventure Wakara, CARE Chad's country director. "A lack of shelter supplies has meant that some refugees have spent nearly a week sleeping under trees, with no protection from the sun, wind and rain. We are increasingly concerned about the supply of water, sanitary infrastructure, food and schools in the camps to support this growing refugee population."

To the southeast, a resurgence of the fighting in the Darfur region of Sudan has left nearly 30,000 refugees in its wake, as well as 20,000 Chadian returnees. While visiting the Goz Amer refugee camp near the southeastern border of Chad, a group of Sudanese women – many left alone to care for their children in the camp – shared with us their harrowing stories.

© 2013 CARE

The pressure of the massive presence of refugees on scarce resources in Chad also makes life increasingly difficult for local communities. Chadians already face hard living conditions coupled with recurring natural catastrophes (such as frequent drought and flooding), as well as a volatile domestic political environment.

CARE is focusing much of its response to the refugee crisis in Chad on meeting the increasing needs of those arriving through entry points in the south. Overall, CARE's country office in Chad is now providing support to more than 58,600 refugees in southern Chad and is closely monitoring the ongoing humanitarian situation in the southeast and throughout the country.

They may arrive from the north, south, east and west, for different reasons and with different stories, but ultimately, the end conclusion is the same: the plight of Chad's refugee, displaced and returnee population cannot be ignored.

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