On 20^th June 2020, the residents of Ahuva Good Shepherd – Small Group Care (SGC) commemorated World Refugee Day.

Awareness Raising

Miss Devi used this occasion to bring awareness to SGC residents on refugees’ plight and helped them recognize the refugees’ resilience in rebuilding their lives.

Ms Devi presented power point slides to explain that refugees are forced to flee their countries because of persecution, war or violence. Currently, the total number of refugees is estimated to be nearly 65 million, and half of these refugees are children.

Situation in Syria

Miss Devi also showed SGC residents videos on the Syrian refugees’ concerning situation. Due to Syrian civil war, families have suffered under brutal conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people. Healthcare centre, hospitals, schools, utilities and sanitation systems are damaged or destroyed. About 5.6 million Syrians are forced to leave the country. As of 20 February 2020, 900,000 Syrians refugees are increasingly squeezed into a small area near the closed border with Turkey, which was already hosting hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

During winter, many Syrian children are living in freezing condition in refugee camps. They are in desperate need of food, clothing, education, and healthcare. After watching the video, our SGC children were moved by the refugees’ plight and vowed that they would help the refugees if they were given the chance. They each passionately gave a speech about sharing food with them and allowing them to stay at their homes.

The three examples show how they are moved to respond with such compassion:

One of them asks: “why are the soldiers so bad to them to  ask them to go away. If it was me, I will welcome them (refugees).”
The second remarks, “they have no food? I will share with them my food.”
At this, the third added, “if they come Singapore, they can stay in my house.”

At the end of the session, our residents created paper people chain to show their solidarity with the refugees. The children were also seen to be googling information on Syria on their own after the session.

           Little Artists telling the world to open doors to refugees through Art

Our Prayer

It is our prayer and hope that by planting these seeds of awareness in our children, they would grow in compassionate love for their brothers and sisters around the world.

“It is the obligation of every person born in a safer room to open the door when someone in danger knocks.” Dina Nayeri

Written By: Devi Eka, Social Service Assistant

Ahuva Good Shepherd – Small Group Care

(Children’s Home)

Singapore