June 16, 2007

When was the last time you felt hungry? This morning at breakfast? Or before last night’s meal, perhaps. What did you do? You probably told mom and presto! There it was, a wonderfully yummy meal that mom had made specially for you at the table. You quickly gobble it down and get up to do something fun for the day; you never stop for a second to realise how lucky you are to have had this delicious, warm meal.

And just like this forgotten meal, there are people around us whom we barely take note of. People whom we hardly know exist. Young people like yourself who wake up to a hungry stomach but don’t have a warm meal waiting for them. They wake up to a cold morning but don’t have a comforter to wrap around themselves or a pillow to rest their heads on. They don’t have a roof above to give them shelter from the rain, heat or wind. They walk by us often on the street but we never notice that their feet are dirty and blistered because they don’t have any shoes on. This way, they survive every day, picking up morsels of food from among the trash we have thrown away, never knowing what will happen to them tomorrow at all. Will tomorrow be better than this? Or will it be even worse, when they won’t find anything to eat at all?

Who are these people, and why are they living among us like this? Where are their homes and their parents, and why don’t they go to school like us? Well, these people are refugees; people who are forced by certain reasons to leave their homes and move to a new country or place to seek asylum or refuge. The reasons for their leaving their homes can be numerous; poverty, famine, war, natural disasters, terrorism, persecution etc; and unless they are provided with proper help at the right time, life can become very difficult for these helpless people.

Refugee movement, which means hundreds of people migrating to seek asylum in a new place, can be found over the past many years. After World War II, thousands of people fled Eastern Europe after being ravaged by the violence and unstable political conditions.

Even today around the world, millions of people are surviving as refugees and thousands are part of ongoing refugee movements. I’m sure you must have heard about issues related to Palestinian refugees or Somalian refugees or even Afghan refugees on television. Well, now you know that these are real people like you and I who are going through very difficult times. In Palestine, for example, there is an ongoing war between the Palestinians and Israel. Because of this war, thousands and thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes and move to any place that they find relatively safer.

In Africa, there is a civil war going on in the country of Somalia. As a result, thousands of people have lost their lives and thousands more have been forced to migrate to safer grounds for their survival, often going across the border into neighbouring countries.

And similarly, there is an ongoing refugee movement in our country, Pakistan, as well. You see, our neighbour, Afghanistan, has had a very disturbing history including wars, terrorist movements and unstable political conditions. And though there is a new government in place there, years and years of instability has left the country very vulnerable. There are little facilities available to people and poor job conditions because of which people have found it difficult to earn a livelihood for themselves and their families.

Over the past many years therefore, thousands of Afghans have escaped their homeland and migrated to our country in search of a better life. And while our government has been trying a lot to accommodate them, it has been a difficult journey. Therefore often, you will find Afghan refugees scattered among us, surviving on whatever little they have. Young boys on the street with beautiful coloured eyes and brown hair, wearing tattered, dirty clothes, carrying huge bags on their backs collecting paper trash every day to earn money by selling it to recycling plants. They often sleep on the streets and go with little food for several days on end. They don’t have homes and there is no one to look after them either.

But that isn’t the end of it at all. Many of our own countrymen have been forced to leave their homes and resettle, the latest cause being the devastating earthquake that hit our northern areas in 2005. Thousands of people were rendered homeless, hundreds lost their lives and even though the government and the entire nation rose up to the cause, these refugees still need more help.

Now that we have a short background on the plight of refugees all over the world, we have an excellent opportunity to help them in any way we can. On Wednesday, June 20, the entire world will be celebrating the World Refugee Day in order to remember the refugees who are in need of our help and to garner support and understanding for their cause. All over the world, people will be discussing the various difficulties that refugees of various nationalities have to face, and different forums will be raising their voices and funds to support this reason.

Why don’t we all contribute our bit by discussing among our friends how we can help? We can involve our parents and teachers too and pitch in to donate for a genuinely worthy cause.