These words offer a description of the experience of millions of people around the world. Fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, whose identities have been stripped and transformed into statistics that at our most calloused we easily scroll past.
They have lost their families, homes, and their jobs, because of imminent and life-threatening dangers. They have taken on the label “refugee” as they have seen their loved ones, cultures, and visions for the future disappear.
For the past 26 years Giving Children Hope has intervened in the lives of the most vulnerable populations around the world. We have followed a call to care for “the least of these”, delivering the promise embedded in our name: Giving Children Hope. This pursuit has intertwined us into the lives of these displaced families. We have met them and heard their stories of pain and perseverance. They have told us the new dreams they envision for themselves and how they long to bring their families safety and stability. We have worked hard to meet their needs and to ensure these dreams come true.
We have also been inspired by you. You have helped us to serve meals, shared your homes, packed supplies, and donated your dollars so that people would have hope. Our work is not something we could do alone and it is thanks to your creativity, advocacy, and selfless giving that we have provided hope to hundreds of thousands of refugees in despair.
This June 20 is World Refugee Day, a day that Giving Children Hope is dedicating to raising support that will provide life-saving supplies such as food, clothing, and medical care to two of our ongoing projects serving Venezuelan refugees and Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
Nearly one million people have fled the war in Syria, seeking safety in Lebanon. They remain in refugee camps, temporary residences that have housed them long past what was designed. Venezuelans continue to flee their country’s failing economy in search of new homes where they can find basics such as food, water, electricity, and employment. More than three million have made the decision to leave and the number continues to rise on a daily basis