Mercenarylight's Blog

We take a lot of things for granted. We live (relatively) normal lives, coming home to our families after a day of school or work, without anymore worries than an average person and with problems that could usually be solved with some of our effort. That’s not the case of the millions of refugees around the world who can’t return back to their homes and are usually separated from their families.

The lives of most refugees are ones of survival, of trying to fit in, of enduring constant discrimination, suffering and rejection, and sometimes even torture, abuse or imprisonment. Many refugees are forced to leave their home countries because of war or persecution; they just want to avoid problems and try to find a good place to live and be happy, but many of us either ignore or reject them. What I found most shocking is that about 50 percent of all refugees are children and teenagers, who can’t get a proper education or good living conditions, and who might get abducted, abused or recruited for military service. You never know if you might have to become a refugee in the future (maybe as a result of a natural disaster, ideological persecution or a rise in violence in your country), so why not try to be of some help now. Helping will not only make you feel better, it might allow someone else to regain the life they lost or reunite with their family members.

What can you do to help? Well there are various ways you can help. One simple way is to blog about it (if you have a blog or other site), like me. Thanks to Blogcatalog’s initiative, Bloggers Unite, I found out about this important issue, and accepted the challenge of writing something helpful for once. One blog can make a small difference, and if thousands of other bloggers join too, we can all make a big difference to raise awareness on the plight of refugees. If you don’t have a site or are a member of a forum, you could always use word-of-mouth to make others know about this problem that might affect any of us one day. I hope this article could have helped in some way or another. If you want to know more about refugees or want to help the organizations that provide assistance to them, below are some links that could help you change someone’s life. But most importantly, there’s one site called Refugees United, which is a special type of (somewhat anonymous) forum that helps refugees to find and stay in touch with family and friends.

Refugees United
http://www.refunite.org/
http://www.refunite.org/blog/

United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrant Children
http://www.refugees.org/

National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children
http://uscri.refugees.org/site/PageNavigator/Childrens%20Center/NCRIC_Home

UK Refugee Services
http://www.redcross.org.uk/TLC.asp?id=81617