Jamie Volpe

9/19/17 "Background"

 

    By definition, a refugee is any person who is outside his/her country of origin or habitual residence and is unable to return due to a well-founded fear of persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group (Refugees Deeply, 2). Refugees have been around ever since there have been wars in the world. A major supporter and leader for the refugees around the world are the 1951 Refugee Convention and the following 1967 Protocol. The ideas for this convention derived from the International Bill of Human Rights. There are certain requirements that the international law must see in a person to consider them a refugee. In order to be considered a refugee, the UNCHR must conduct the Refugee Status Determination (RSD). The RSD consists of an interview with the intended refugee, and then an overall background check of the person's home life and if they are in fact in danger. 

 

9/22/16 "Quick Facts from Mercy Corps: What You Need to Know About the Syria Crisis"

  

     The war in Syria has left people in the worst state that we have seen in humanity. Over 11 million families have been displaced, forced to flee their homes, and killed, which is over half of Syria's population. The rebellion started in March of 2011, it quickly escalated and turned violent. The country has been in a terrible state with extreme human rights violations and a dire need for basic living necessities like food, water, and shelter. External aids such as Russia and the Mercy Corps operations has become harder and harder to get on the inside because communication has been cut off. Other Syrians have fled to Jordan, Lebanon, other parts of northern Iraq, Turkey. Some even make a dangerous trek across the Mediterranean from Turkey to Greece, many do not make it through the trip. The decision to flee is probably one of the hardest ones to make for all of these families, however, they find that they don't have much of a choice after they see their neighbors fleeing bombings and attacks. The conditions in refugee camps are poor and lacking sanitary standards for living. There is a constant need for help on the outside and has only been increasing. 

 

9/29/16 New York Times "Syria After 4 Years of Mayhem"

     

     4 years in a war of religion has left half of Syria's people to leave their homes. photographs taken of Syria at night shows that the country is 83 percent darker from before the war started. The main cause of this is the people of Syria fleeing for refuge, also power cutoffs and just overall destruction. Even with Damascus being under government control, it is 35% darker than before the war. Areas that are pro-government are more along the coast of the country, but certain capitals of these areas are taken over as battlefields. The war has forced 7.6 people within Syria to leave their homes and 3.6 million people to leave their country and seek refuge. These countries have attempted to accommodate for the refugees, but the overflow has left countries like Lebanon to require a visa to enter the country. People including children are then forced to remain displaced within Syria living in dangerous areas where they live in poverty. 

 

U.S Committee for Refugees- Background 

     Of the 60 million people who have been displaced from their homeland, less than .1% will get a chance of a new life in a free country. Up to 70% of refugees are seeking shelter in urban areas where they have to remain under the radar because they are not registered, this means children cannot attend school and adults can’t acquire to legitimate jobs, so they work for extremely low pay. The remaining 30% are living in harsh conditions in refugee camps where the average stay can be 17 years. The options from here are limited. Refugees can either return home to the conditions they were forced to flee, they can remain in the countries cities they have fled to where the have to live with the bare minimum, or they get extremely lucky and become a citizen of a new third country and start a new life. 

 

10/3/16 People Living "In Sheer Terror" Around Lake Chad

     In west Africa, people are trying to survive on a daily basis. There is a need for more housing in  Africa to prevent people from being forced into shack settlements and housing that is not meant to be lived in over long periods of time. In the last 2 years, over 2 and a half million residents have been forced to leave their homes. The article focuses mostly on the area of the Lake Chad region because it has an incredible amount of violence and is taken over from attacks by the Islamic State’s West Africa Province and regional military forces.  There is a dire need for more health facilities all around the area, many have been forced to close due to a lack of proper equipment and medicine. This has lead to the people in Africa not getting the healthcare they need to survive. The future state of this part of the country is unknown and leaves people waiting in fear for their lives as they are displaced and deprived of necessities that we are given on a daily basis. 

 

Exodus # Crossing Mexico

     As many know, there is a huge population of people trying to get across US borders from Mexico. But the real danger for people crossing borders is when people from the Central Americas want to seek new opportunity in the US. They experience encounters with criminals at the Mexican borders that will scar you forever. The article follows Juan Ramón and his family as he takes the Pacific route in hopes of reaching the US. While traveling through a rice field they were seen by armed forces and were then assaulted and abandoned. With the attempt to stop people from boarding The Beast, it only seems like there are fewer people migrating because we aren't seeing it on T.V, but it is still happening and it is happening in a dangerous unsafe way. Children and women are most vulnerable and there is a high rate of violence, human trafficking, and extortion.   

 

10/6/16

How a Liberian Refugee is Liberating Child Soldiers At Scale

     Sheikh A. Turay has been helping child soldiers through job opportunities. Sheikh was sent to the Ivory Coast after the war to seek refugee, he was here for 14 years. He became an elementary school teacher within the camp for a while but then returned home to Liberia. He wanted to help the men that are left without jobs and a way of living a life because they were forced into the battlefield as a child. Sheikh saw an opportunity in the open fields where he could harvest cocoa. This is an amazing way for former child soldiers to regain control of their lives and have the ability to do things because they have a job. This 

 

 "One Family's Story from the Dem. Republic of Congo" 

     I think this video is very important and should be shared with people all around. People need to actually see the pain and feel the emotion that is there when they are sharing their story. The Shabani family is standing in front of what seemed to be a full room. To get up and talk about anything is nerve-racking to begin with, but it is hard to imagine how this family feels talking about something so personal. It is obvious that the married couple is very passionate about what they are speaking on. The state of their country is horrible and they want to seek protection for the women in their country because their government is very corrupt. The wife only spoke in the beginning about what she does as a human rights activist and how they are looking for people to help the horrible situation their country rests in. After she explained how we need to help rebuild these women's lives, she gave the microphone back to her husband who then would tell us the story of how his family needed to seek refuge and moved from country to country. At moments he would be louder and angrier when he was talking about something he was remembering, but he would also get very quiet and low when he talked about the really devastating things. The Shabani family's story is really moving and their emotions have shown through their overall presenece and tone of voice during the whole speech.