West Bank #RealLifeHeroes

Turkmenistan now champions universal birth registration

UNHCR’s Salome Ayukuru, widely known as ‘Mama’, has been helping vulnerable refugees to rebuild their shattered lives for nearly two decades.

Brazil has become the second worst affected country in the world, with nearly 83,000 confirmed deaths and a continuing increase in confirmed cases. Considered an epicenter of the pandemic in Latin America, the situation is taking its toll on the most vulnerable – including the poorest, indigenous populations and other native communities, as well as refugees. All have been disproportionately impacted. Brazil is host to more than 345,000 refugees and asylum seekers, for whom the consequences of the pandemic are especially harsh. As socio-economic conditions worsen among refugee and asylum seeker communities, UNHCR has been disbursing cash assistance to those most vulnerable.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has appointed South Sudanese track and field athlete Yiech Pur Biel as their newest Goodwill Ambassador. A refugee, Pur was forced to flee the conflict in South Sudan in 2005, journeying alone to Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya when he was only ten years old. Growing up in Kakuma, Pur devoted himself to athletic training despite the intense heat and basic facilities in the camp. He trained at the Tegla Loroupe camp in Nairobi, and began running competitively in 2015, before being part of the first Refugee Olympic Team at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. “It is a huge honour for me to be able to use my status as an athlete to help refugees and displaced people, to share my own story and those of other refugees like me and make sure that refugees all over the world have a voice," he says. 

While the situation is worrying, so far the number of identified COVID-19 cases amongst the Rohingya refugee population is relatively low at just 62 cases as of July. The community health volunteers’ role has become even more important since humanitarian workers have scaled back their work in the camps to reduce the risk of transmitting the virus. WHO has worked with UNHCR to train the volunteers on how to identify symptoms and make referrals for testing. But they must contend with the fear and rumours that have discouraged many people from approaching health facilities.

Despite having cancer, Olena Miryasheva was denied access to health care: she could not be registered at the outpatient clinic, could not obtain a prescription, and could not even undergo a medical examination which would have been free for a Ukrainian citizen. A new statelessness determination procedure in Ukraine gives people without identity documents the right to work, study and access health care.

UNHCR asked youth to draw in solidarity with refugees amid the pandemic. They received 2,000 drawings from 100 countries, chose seven and brought them to life.

Actress and UNHCR Good Will Ambassador Cate Blanchett explains the causes and consequences of statelessness. She outlines what barriers a stateless person may experience, even without any displacement, to leading a normal life.

The UN Refugee Agency presents Nabil Attard, a refugee chef from Syria, lived through a crisis in his home country. Now living in France, he delivers for those on the frontlines during a crisis in his new country.

The UN refugee agency brings us the story of Salwa Atoo, a mother of seven with a no-nonsense attitude, who is the neighbourhood’s conflict mediator. It all began when she deescalated an argument at a water pump at a site for Internally Displaced Persons in Juba, South Sudan, where long lines in the hot sun often lead to short tempers and jostling. Then she staged an intervention for an alcoholic neighbour and helped a woman access medical care following a sexual assault.

UNHCR is alarmed at the increasing number of violent attacks on displaced civilians by armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). UNHCR is calling on the authorities to strengthen the presence of police, military forces with support of MONUSCO to improve the security situation. Over five million people have been uprooted by insecurity within the country’s borders, while nearly a million Congolese have sought safety in neighbouring countries as refugees.

Cate Blanchett was inspired and impassioned by her work and experiences as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, to shine a light on what loss of identity can mean.

Behind the counter of her small convenience store in a rundown neighbourhood of Tripoli, northern Lebanon, 35-year-old Kawkab Mustafa keeps a list of debts owed to her by customers she has allowed to buy goods on credit. In recent months, the list has grown so long she needs four separate notebooks to record all the entries. UNHCR shows us how the arrival of COVID-19 and restrictions to contain its spread in March have brought further misery to both Lebanese locals and Syrian refugees, leaving many unable to work and pushing them closer to the brink of destitution.

Refugees feel uncertainty every day