What is a refugee?
A refugee is...
A new mother
like Beata*
A future doctor
like Jouman*
A budding musician
like Sofiia*
A champion in training
like Kasereka*
A refugee is someone forced to leave their country because it’s not safe for them to stay. But they are also so much more.
Over 40% of refugees are children. Last year alone more than 10 million children were forced to flee their homes in the world’s 10 largest crises. Children with hopes and dreams.
Nobody chooses to become a refugee. Save the Children works with children and their families to ensure it doesn't define them.
Donate today and give children the childhood they deserve, wherever they are.
Our response for refugees and displaced children.
Save the Children is working to support refugees and people displaced in places such as Ukraine, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the occupied Palestinian territory.
We provide protection and support services at borders to help people settle as they arrive in new places. We protect children who have become separated from their families and work to reunite them with loved ones.
We work inside some of the world’s largest refugee camps, such as Cox’ Bazar in Bangladesh and Z’atari camp in Jordan, to provide learning opportunities, play centres and emotional support services, through our Child-Friendly Spaces.
We can't do it alone. Together we can give children the childhood they deserve, wherever they are.
About the people in the photos
Ghinwa*, 13, fled the war in Syria and now lives in a refugee settlement in Lebanon with her family. Photo: Jonathan Hyams / Save the Children.
Refugees and returnees cross the Joda border from Sudan into South Sudan. Photo: Marie-Sophie Schwarzer / Save the Children.
Beata*, 27, and her newborn Beni* outside a medical facility run by Save the Children in Mahama Refugee Camp, Rwanda, after fleeing the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Photo: Yagazie Emezi / Save the Children.
Jouman*, 16, fled the war in Sudan when violence erupted. Now she studies at a refugee school in Cairo, Egypt. Photo: Amira Hosny/ Save the Children.
Sofiia*, 14, holding her guitar in the family's home in Wroclaw, Poland, as they were forced to flee Ukraine after the full-scale war started in February 2022. Photo: Save the Children.
Kasereka*, 15, plays football at a Child-Friendly Space in Kyangwali Refugee Settlement, Uganda. Kasereka and his family fled violence in DRC. Photo: Esther Ruth Mbabazi / Save The Children.
Views of the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Photo: Daphnee Cook / Save the Children.
Smiling Hassan*, 6, at a displacement camp in South Sudan. Hassan lives here with his family after fleeing the war in Sudan. Photo: Joel Bebe/ Save the Children.
*Names changed to protect identity.Preview of What makes a refugee? (COPY) (shorthand.com)
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