But seeking safety is just the start.

As of 2022, 100 million people are displaced. That’s 1 in every 78 people forced to flee their homes and find sanctuary. Each journey begins in hope, but hope quickly vanishes due to the barriers that are faced.

Restricted access and closed borders leave refugees at serious risk of exploitation. Long journeys can be extremely unsafe and families can be separated or face arbitrary detention. And discriminatory treatment leads to the denial of basic rights such as working or accessing healthcare.

In host countries, while the immediate threat of persecution may have gone, refugees face a range of other issues. The experience of trauma and loss of livelihoods leaves refugees vulnerable and in need of support.

Poverty becomes impossible to avoid. In Lebanon – a country with the second largest per capita share of refugees in the world – 90% of Syrian refugees live in extreme poverty and almost 50% are unable to put food on the table.

In 2021, the vast majority of refugees in Lebanon continued to resort to negative coping strategies to survive, such as begging, borrowing money, not sending their children to school, reducing health expenses or not paying rent.

Finding a dignified and safe shelter remains a struggle. Almost 60% of Syrian refugees in Lebanon live in dangerous, substandard, or overcrowded shelters that fail to provide adequate living conditions. 

This situation is not unique. In host countries the world over, refugees are trapped in cycles of suffering due to the dire circumstances they face.

We're determined to change this. Protecting people forced to flee is a collective global responsibility. 

Syria Relief/Action For Humanity is on the ground in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria and a range of other crises zones supporting refugee children and families. Through our Family and Orphan Sponsorship Programmes, we give cash assistance so that refugees can buy what they need and escape the cycle of poverty in which they are trapped.

Seeking safety should bring hope, not hardship. Help us provide life-changing support today.