In March 2016 Macedonia closed their border with Greece, leaving thousands of refugees stranded on the Greek side with no where to go. They couldn’t go forward, they couldn’t go around, they couldn’t go back. People congregated around the former entry checkpoint and an unofficial camp was formed, Idomeni. On Monday 23rd May, the army informed the refugees they would be moved from Idomeni. At dawn the next day, the army moved in in riot gear. Journalists, NGOs and the public were banned from seeing the process. Our group from GAiN were volunteering in a Hotspot while this process was happening.

Since the earthquake on 25th April 2015 a further 500 aftershocks were recorded that continued to hamper people’s return to daily life. The shocks in Nepal this past year have not only been physiological, but also political as the country sought to draft a new constitution and faced fuel blockades along their Indian border putting the country into further crisis.

The tent villages of Kurdistan are where the conflicts within Syria and Iraq spill over into human suffering as debris from the ongoing violence.

Through the funds raised in our recent Blanket Appeal we were able to help provide 200 blankets and 90 bags of lentils to more than 30 Syrian and Iraqi families finding refuge in Erbil. Many of these families are living in tents around the city wherever they can find space to camp. They have faced a harsh and difficult winter especially with temperatures dropping to – 4⁰ at night.

For many of the families continuing to find refuge in Kurdistan it is simply a case of surviving. They have already made it through one cold winter and blistering summer, only to face yet another winter away from the places they call home. They lost their homes, their professions and livelihoods. For most of them there is no going back. The number of refugees is remains high with 2 million in Kurdistan alone. One family shares their story of fleeing to Erbil and the reality of their lives to this day.

One of our UK volunteers, Katie Lowe, recently attended our disaster response training in Latvia and shares about her experience. “For me personally, DART was so much more than the actual training itself. I developed practically, socially, relationally, spiritually and mentally. I have never before felt every value, goal and practical action that I aspire to, so closely mirrored by an organisation and group of people. To see unconditional love actioned so tangibly and professionally was a privilege. I left the training with confidence in my skills and 20 new friends.’

The crisis of migrants travelling to Europe has hit the headlines in recent weeks as they desperately seek to find refuge away from a war zone that was once their homeland.
What is it that pushes people to extremes, taking their lives in their hands as they seek safety in another land?

We often think of poverty in material terms, our teams recent visit to Romania saw how a lack of purpose can add to the depth of poverty. Working with a Roma community who make a livelihood from whatever rubbish they can sell. The closure of the city dump they rely on was an even bigger impact on their day to day survival.

On April 25th, a powerful 7.8 earthquake devastated Nepal. Our in-country partners who were already working in Nepal have been responding ever since the earthquake, bringing immediate relief to those in desperate need. The figures continue to tell of the scale of the disaster with over 8,300 people known to have been killed in the earthquake and following aftermath.

Over 4,500 people are now known to have died. As rescue teams sift through the debris and reach remote mountainous areas, the death toll is expected to rise. More than 6,500 people have been injured and dozens of people have been killed in neighbouring China and India. Thousands have lost their homes and their belongings. The real immediate concern is infrastructure, water and electricity for the survivors. Fear is widespread as the aftershocks continue, making it impossible to re-enter homes and buildings.

Our partners have been working within Kurdistan to respond to the physical and emotional needs of the Christian & Yezidi communities who were forced to flee their homes in the wake of the violence. “For me it was such an encouragement to see how our partners are working hard to meet the ongoing physical needs of the families as well as building relationships with them in the midst of their loss.”

Since the beginning of the terror in Syria that began in March 2011, Global Aid Network has been responding by bringing relief to families who have fled their homes in search of relative safety.Through the ongoing work of GAiN and their local partners, we can begin to see the difference that bringing help and hope to families over these long months can make. For those families who have managed to make it across the borders life is by no means straight forward.

Last November I began to hear about a woman called Samara Levy in Brighton who was collecting winter clothes for Iraqi refugees. She’d connected with Agapé’s aid partners GAiN (Global Aid Network) to help with funding and other logistics. When I got in touch with her last week to find out about how it had all happened, I imagined that she’d previously been to Iraq, or that she’d worked in humanitarian aid before. But, apparently not.

In summer 2014 a GAiN team helped with the re-building of an orphanage devastated by the 2010 earthquake. Oxford student Anna Thorne shares her experience.

Iraq now hosts one of the largest internally displaced populations in the world with the UN figures now at 1.8 million affected people. Before the crisis began in Iraq, they were already hosting 225,000 Syrian refugees in the Kurdish Autonomous region of Iraq and now there another 850,000 Iraqi people who have fled here.