An Initiative in Egypt Aids Refugees from Sudan War
(AWP) - Volunteers at the “For Every Refugee and Immigrant” initiative are working by leaps and bounds to aid Sudanese refugees who have arrived in Egypt to flee the civil war that broke out between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April.
The initiative offers a wide range of services, including providing refugees with housing, in addition to financial and moral support.
“For the refugees, the initiative covered most needs. As for the refugees who came after the war, we covered the housing part. The initiative was an emergency room that hosted families who came without clothing, food or water, and did not have a place to stay," said Amany Abu Bakr, the initiative's founder.
“We provided them with information about how to register with the refugee commission in Egypt (PSTIC), and we rented houses for many of them with the help of many Egyptian families,” she added.
Abu Bakr says that the first thing the refugees need is a sense of safety, adding that the initiative has connected female refugees with a remote working opportunity to help them provide for their families.
“The majority of the families who came after the war, the thing they needed most is a sense of security, because they have come from war to another country, and do not know how they will live, and the thing they need most is to know how they can live in safety,” she continues.
Initiative beneficiaries said that the classes and activities offered helped save their children’s educational course.
“The period during which we lived here, there were courses, classes and activities for children. We were staying, and my children were studying and practicing sports activities here at the initiative’s headquarters,” Magda Daoud, a beneficiary of the initiative, says.
Her comments were echoed by another initiative beneficiary, Maran Idriss, who added that “the initiative saved a large number of children, as it helped them continue their education, after they had been at home for more than 9 months [without education] since the beginning of the war.
Thank God, they came here and benefited greatly. The teachers who volunteered for the initiative were very nice, and the studies continued well. They received exercises periodically, like any other school, and God willing, the initiative will grow and become a bigger school.”
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Egypt said on Wednesday that the country hosts around 473,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers.
UNHCR added that Sudanese citizens comprise 44% of the total number of 472,800, 240,519 of whom are refugees and 232,281 are asylum seekers.
Spokesperson for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Regional Office for Middle East and North Africa, Mohammed Ali Abunajela, had earlier said that nearly five million people have been displaced inside Sudan due to the war, while the number of Sudanese refugees who have fled the country surpasses one million.