Finding Home and Hope through StARS

Over the past three months, people in Sudan have had to adjust to a dangerous new reality due to the ongoing conflict. Sounds of laughter and play have been replaced by airstrikes and fear. Families are dividing any many must now carry the heavy weight of grief. In this new reality, life became about survival for 17-year-old Maha and her family.

In 2019, Maha’s mother fled to the UK to seek asylum and provide her children a better life. Since then, Maha and her four younger siblings had been cared for by their grandmother. In April of this year, Maha’s home was struck by a bomb, killing her grandmother. Alone and with no one to turn to, Maha and her siblings fled to the neighboring country of Egypt.

The route to Egypt was dangerous and traumatizing for the children who were smuggled into the country. They arrived exhausted and dismayed and were taken in by a local woman who gave them temporary shelter. Unfortunately, due to economic difficulties, the woman could not give the children a home for long. After a couple of days, she took them to a UNHCR office which referred the children to St. Andrew’s Refugee Services, also known as StARS*.

Maha, who had been unexpectedly assigned the daunting task of caring for her siblings, was riddled with anxiety for their safety. StARS stepped in and initiated an emergency placement with a StARS host. After being placed in a safe and friendly home, the children were connected to a psychosocial worker to support them in their healing from trauma.

After a few weeks of helping the children get settled in their new community, StARS was able to make contact with their mother. The StARS legal team is now actively working to reunite the children with their mother in the UK.

The once fearful children are now rediscovering a sense of safety and support through StARS. They continue to receive psychological support and have joined the StARS education program. At every step of the way, StARS is ready to be the safe and loving home that the five children deserve.

*StARS is a refugee- and women-led service provider that connects refugees in Cairo to educational, legal, medical, psychosocial, housing and other services. Since the start of the conflict in Sudan in April, StARS has opened its doors to hundreds of Sudanese refugees. To learn more about CWS’ work with refugees around the world, click here.