You can help a refugee unpack today.

What do refugees pack? Not as much as you might guess. They may not have much to begin with. They hope to return home someday soon. They’re often traveling by foot. The more they pack, the more they must carry.

And then, there are the children:

• Children are one-third of the world’s population, but children represent more than 40% of the world’s refugees.
• In 2020, 1 in 3 children who were living outside their country of birth were refugees. For adults, it’s only 1 in 20.

Usually, refugees are children traveling alone or parents trying desperately to keep their kids safe. So, everything refugees pack matters. (Thank you to the UN Refugee Agency for these statistics.)

In our work alongside refugees across the globe, we’ve seen firsthand what refugees carry on their journey. Here are some of the items we regularly encounter:

Journal
As a Baha'i in Iran, Sina was being persecuted. He couldn't get a business license, go to university, or work for the government. So he fled to Turkey—a one-day journey that took him five days because he was forced to travel at night, and sleep in caves by day. When CWS helped Sina resettle in North Carolina, all he brought was his journal. In it, he had recorded his entire journey. “I avoid reading my journal,” Sina says, “They bring too many emotions.”

Money
It’s a natural instinct for anyone to grab money when they leave. But money can be complicated for refugees. It may not be worth much anymore, and there may not be much to purchase anyway. Money can make someone a target for thieves. And even if the money is useful, it rarely lasts long. We work across the globe to help refugees save their money, find work, and meet their basic needs.

Medication
Refugees—especially older adults—often find themselves cut off from the medicine they need to thrive or survive. Heart pressure, arthritis, asthma, diabetes—we see refugees being forced to carefully dole out their remaining medication to make it last as long as possible. That’s why CWS helps refugees connect to new sources of health care.

Diapers
According to the UN Refugee Agency, 1 million babies were born in refugee camps between 2018 and 2020.

Socks
Refugees—whether on the move or living in a refugee camp—spend most of their days on their feet. Socks are in high demand because they help make the miles they walk every day a bit more bearable.

A goat or cow
For refugees in certain parts of the world—for example, the Middle East or Africa—a family’s goat or cow might be a key lifeline on their journey. It can be a source of milk and meat, or a way to bargain for safe passage or trade for more critical items.

Religious texts
Whatever their spiritual beliefs, many refugees find strength, wisdom, and solace in the words of their religion’s text. When the daily danger of a refugee’s life seems too much to bear, simply reading a passage or two can help them gather their perseverance to survive another day.

Photos and memories
Abdi is from Somalia. When war erupted, he made his way to Kenya, where he spent five years as a refugee before we helped him resettle in the U.S. “I did not bring anything from Somalia when I fled,” Abdi explains. “But I brought some things to America from Kenya—including a winter coat, an English dictionary, and lots of photos of friends and family.” CWS helps refugees who resettle in America adjust to their new home without losing connections to their country of origin.

It’s an interesting question to meditate on for a moment. If you suddenly—with only a couple of days’ warning—had to begin driving or walking thousands of miles away from an invading army, what would you pack?

You don’t have a known destination. You don’t have much money. And you have to assume it could be months or years before you can come back home. What would you pack if your family became refugees tomorrow?

We help protect and resettle refugees from around the world. Your gift will help us perform this critical work in a number of ways.

Refugee Resettlement
We help identify refugees—especially those in Africa—who are eligible to be safely resettled in America. Working closely with the United Nations Refugee Agency, we help refugees who are bound for America find a safe home, learn the English language, and find work. Your gift will allow us to get more refugees safely to the U.S. and help them thrive once they’re here.

Refugee Support
We work with refugees in their new homes to help them build brighter futures. Adults who may not have been able to finish their education are learning to read. Farmers are cultivating community gardens, growing produce to feed their families and to sell. Entrepreneurs are drawing up plans for small businesses and accessing the capital they need to get started. Your monthly donation to CWS will allow us to bring these life-saving programs to refugees across the globe.

After almost 80 years, we have become a major institution in key areas of global conflict. Specifically, we currently do work in:

Africa — including refugee camps in Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, and much of the sub-Saharan region.

Europe and Middle East — including Bosnia, Serbia, Georgia, and Egypt.

Asia — including the countries of Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Japan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.

Latin America and the Caribbean — including Mexico, Argentina, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and much of rural Central America.