Ola Abu Saleem, has turned her passion for hand-made art into a source of income for her family, by creating beautiful Ramadan decorations and lanterns. Amid their daily struggles, many Palestine refugees in Gaza are finding ways to generate income and share the joy of the month with their communities. UNRWA is participating in the holy month of Ramadhan through its teachers and training centers by building a sense of community and belonging in among the refugees. At the heart of Ramadan is the concept of charity and giving back to those in need. The practice of zakat, the giving of a portion of one's wealth to those in need, takes on a special significance during this time.

Rouah Abuzamazem works with the Migrant Resource and Response Mechanism Unit in IOM Libya. IOM assists rescued migrants with health assistance, psychosocial support and humanitarian direct assistance such as provision of hygiene kits and clothes. By working closely with the Libyan authorities, particularly with the detention centre management, IOM is also working to enhance living conditions for detained migrants through rehabilitation of the detention centre facilities, human rights training of staff, health assistance, psychosocial support and humanitarian direct assistance.

Like so many forced by conflict to flee their homes, Clarisse Nina Renessio dreams of returning. Now, five years after fighting first reached her village in the Central African Republic, that dream is close to becoming a reality. Last year the UN Refugee Agency, facilitated the return of 800 people from PK3, a camp for displaced people outside the city of Bria where 33,000 people live. This initial relocation, mostly to previously unsafe neighbourhoods of the city, came after repeated surveys showed that most households at PK3 wished to return to their original homes. 

Fleeing Congo’s civil war, widowed Angelique Kahindo, trekked her way through the treacherous Congo jungles with her children until she reached Nakivake refugee settlement in southern Uganda. Through ILO PROSPECTS, she was shortlisted for a six month apprenticeship, where she learned and perfected her tailoring skills. The world is witnessing the highest levels of displacement ever recorded. In recent years, forced displacement has increased not only in scale but also in complexity.  PROSPECTS, spearheaded by the Government of Netherlands in partnerships with several international bodies, was initiated to improve the access of host communities and forcibly displaced people to employment and livelihood opportunities.

From supporting themselves on their farm in Namande village in Mozambique, Ali’s family had no choice but to leave everything behind when insurgents attacked their village. Ali, his wife Florinda and their five children are among the more than one million people who have been displaced from their homes, and who are now relying on support from FAO and its partners to help them restart their livelihoods. Local authorities in the neighbouring Montepuez district soon allocated Ali and his family a 0.5-hectare plot of land to farm and FAO provided a farming kit to get back to prodcution.

Shebulike and his family fled the violence in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo after surviving two attacks by armed men invading their home. A few months after arriving in Burundi, Shebulike realized that he needed to provide for his wife and seven children and keep himself busy, so he fell back on his profession as a baker. “Rather than sit idle and depend entirely on the help we receive from the UN Refugee Agency and other humanitarian organizations, I found it useful to roll my sleeves up and get to work on the thing I know best.”

Ludmila arrived in Wroclaw from Ukraine shortly after the outbreak of the war, and now works in an NGO supporting Ukranian refugess in Poland. UNFPA highlights that accepting refugees is not only the right thing to do, but it also provides significant economic benefits to the host country. The countries that welcome refugees from conflict-affected areas, recognizing their right to reach safety and access opportunity, find that many have valuable skills and make important contributions to their new homes.

"There are certain images that will stay with me for a very long time. Because those are the images that cannot be forgotten overnight." Sajjad Malik witnessed terrible suffering during the Syrian crisis. As UNHCR’s former representative in the country, he oversaw one of the UN Refugee Agency’s toughest and most dangerous operations.

Since the war in Syria started in 2011 more than 5.7 million people have fled the country. Another 6.9 million are internally displaced. In this special bitesize episode, Sajjad Malik reflected on the catastrophic conditions he witnessed there and the lasting impact of those memories.

"You have to maintain your mental strength and courage. It’s fine to say it and reflect and cry if need be."

A hidden crisis is enveloping neighbouring Ituri Province, in North Kivu, where civilians face extreme daily violence that has forced 1.5 million to flee their homes. UNHCR and its partners in Ituri are providing emergency shelters, distributions of household items, and vital services including psychosocial and legal support to survivors of violence.

IOM brings us the story of the many migrants caught between uncertainty and hope, who continue to risk their lives in the Darien Gap, an infamously perilous trek, seeking to reach North America.

With the onset of the cold weather, people in Ukraine would not leave their land and started preparing for the worst – IOM teams supported 109 families in the Kyiv Region with renovation works.

UN Refugee brings us the story of Yash, 17, who writes to his refugee grandfather, now deceased. His grandad fled as a teenager in 1947 during the partition of India, leaving everything behind.

Due to his complicated upbringing, Ievhen has never been able to get a passport or access many of his rights: to have an education, get a decent job, officially marry his partner Marharyta, open a bank account, or receive state benefits – which he should now be entitled to as an internally displaced person. He reached out to IOM’s partner NGO Caritas who referred the family to IOM’s tailored protection services. Legal identity is central to enabling regular migration and to protecting the rights of migrants throughout their migration journeys.

Most people are familiar with the phenomenon of refugees, those forced to flee their country of origin, because of fear of persecution or because of armed conflict or natural disaster. Internally displaced persons don’t cross international boundaries but find it necessary to relocate to a different region of their country. On today’s episode of The Lid Is On, Conor Lennon met with Cecilia Jimenez-Damary – the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons – on the link between conflict and the climate crisis, which is increasingly causing people to search for safety.

IOM brings us the story of Ana Marvez, who found a home in Chile, after finding the Music Foundation for Integration, a group composed mostly of musician refugees and migrants from Venezuela.