Mary*, a 30-year old mother of three, lives in a camp for displaced people in Rubkona, South Sudan, where she arrived after fleeing the war in Sudan. Over one million people have completed a similar journey since the war began in April 2023, with many making long and challenging journeys in search of safety. But South Sudan is also struggling. Hunger is prevalent across the country.
Like many, Mary was facing immense challenges in her new home, including finding food for herself and her children. Fortunately, she was registered to receive a monthly food basket of sorghum, beans, cooking oil, and salt from the South Sudanese Development and Relief Agency, a partner of Canadian Foodgrains Bank member Mennonite Central Committee Canada. With her basic food needs met, Mary was able to invest time in starting a small vegetable garden, producing fresh vegetables for her family and a small surplus to sell in the local market. “The food assistance gave us life and hope,” she shared. “Now, I can see a brighter future for my children.”
The global picture
Mary’s story of displacement is far from unique. The global numbers are hard to imagine: over 123 million people are forcibly displaced from their homes – a number that has doubled over the last decade.
Many of those displaced will remain away from home for years, if not decades. The average length of displacement is 20 years for refugees and 10 years for internally displaced people. While displaced, people often have few livelihood opportunities, struggle with poverty, and lack appropriate housing and access to basic services such as healthcare or education. In many cases, displaced people do not have land to produce their own food or have legal status to get a job in the formal sector – relying on informal, casual employment that has a high risk of being exploitative.
People have lost their businesses, agricultural land, livestock, and family and social networks. Not surprisingly, displaced people are vulnerable to hunger. When I met displaced people in South Sudan, they talked about leaving their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs. It is not surprising that in every single one of the 15 countries analyzed in the recent Global Report on Food Crises, displaced people experienced higher rates of hunger than the host population. A recent report from World Vision echoes this – finding that displaced people are three times as likely to be food insecure as the host communities around them.
It is countries that are already struggling with hunger that are hosting displaced people. Nearly all people (95%) who are internally displaced and 70% of refugees are hosted by countries who are experiencing food crises. For example, Lebanon is home to over 750,000 refugees, in a country of less than six million people. Over a million people have fled Sudan for South Sudan, a country of 12 million people. Countries such as Bangladesh, Chad, Ethiopia, Pakistan, and Uganda are all home to more than a million refugees. By comparison, Canada is home to fewer than 270,000 refugees – less than one per cent of our population.
There is some partial good news. The number of refugees returning home – 1.6 million – was higher than it had been in decades. Unfortunately, people are returning home not because it is safe, but because life as a refugee is so hard. Over 90% of the 1.6 million returned to Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan, and Ukraine. South Sudanese refugees are returning from Uganda (where cuts to the World Food Programme have meant that a million refugees have lost their food assistance) and Sudan (due to conflict) to a context experiencing high levels of hunger and at risk of conflict. Returnees often return with very little and since many have been away from home for years, have few social connections to help them rebuild. A return does not mean that life is easy.
But sadly, while Mary’s story of displacement is common, the part of the story where she receives assistance is increasingly less so. International agencies have made significant cutbacks in response to global funding cuts to international humanitarian assistance from various governments. The UN High Commission for Refugees, for example, has implemented deep cuts to its work, noting that 13 million displaced people will be left without assistance as a result. The World Food Programme has also had to substantially cut back programming reaching displaced people, as have many other organizations, as a result of these funding cuts.
How are Foodgrains Bank members responding?
Foodgrains Bank members continue responding to meet the needs of displaced people. Last year, approximately three-quarters of the food assistance supported through Foodgrains Bank was implemented in contexts of displacement. We supported food assistance and livelihoods programming for displaced people in 15 countries.
Here are a couple of examples of how this programming has supported people who have been displaced.
One of our members’ largest responses to displacement has been in Syria and Lebanon. When the Syrian civil war started in 2011, millions of people were displaced within Syria and to neighbouring countries such as Lebanon. Last year, our members supported programming that reached over 130,000 people across these two countries.
Sarah*, Ali*, and their six children, were among those who received assistance from World Renew’s partner MERATH. The family was displaced from their farm near Aleppo, their house was destroyed, and crops burnt. They moved three times before finding a safe place to live near Damascus. Ali finds casual labour whenever he can – clearing blocked pipes or sewers or carrying material on construction sites – which is just enough to pay the rent. The family struggles to purchase basic necessities. Every month, Sarah says, “we are not sure if we’re going to be able to pay the rent. We live in constant fear of being evicted at any moment and becoming homeless.”
The food assistance from MERATH came as a big relief. Sarah says, “it is a guarantee that no matter what happens, we will have something to eat… we feel less pressure on our shoulders, and we are not afraid of hunger anymore. Our children feel more comfortable, seeing their mother and father happy and knowing that there will be food for them… we regained hope that future will be better.”
Similar work is happening in neighbouring Lebanon. To learn more about work supported by ADRA Canada through Foodgrains Bank’s membership in the Humanitarian Coalition, click here.
Foodgrains Bank members also support programming to help displaced people restart livelihoods in their new location to build resilience to hunger for the long-term.
This is difficult work, but we have seen examples of its success. In northeastern Nigeria, Foodgrains Bank supported another World Renew partner, ZOA, with funding from the Government of Canada to work with displaced people. ZOA provided cash transfers at the start of the project, while helping displaced households to plan for and establish new businesses and start kitchen gardens in the small plots of land people had access to. By the end of the project, many families were earning nearly the same amount through their small businesses as they had previously received through cash transfers – providing a more sustainable way to address hunger. And families were consuming twice as many vegetables at the end of the project than they were at the beginning – thanks to their own production and what they could now afford to buy.
Ada*, a 32-year old mother of three, and her husband were forced to flee their home when insurgents invaded, burning their home and business. Ada and her husband had been successful farmers and owned a shop. Now everything was lost and the family was forced to rely on casual labour to try to purchase food. ZOA supported Ada with cash assistance and to establish a business selling soup ingredients. Her business thrived and she re-invested profits in other ventures, ultimately accessing irrigated land where she began farming and earned a healthy profit. Ada shared that “it gladdens my heart to see that I am recovering all that I lost… I am now a happy mother; my children are attending school and my business is moving smoothly.” Hope – and food security – have been restored for Ada.
Food for today, hope for the future
Displacement is a traumatic event. No one wants to flee their home, to leave behind their life’s work, to exchange flourishing fields or successful businesses for a life in a displaced persons camp for years or decades, trying to seek out a livelihood.
The assistance provided by local partners of Foodgrains Bank’s members is meeting the urgent and immediate needs of displaced people in countries all over the world – from Syria to Ukraine, Sudan to Gaza. This assistance is lifesaving, helping some of the people most vulnerable to hunger globally. But as these stories show, the work of Foodgrains Bank members and their partners is doing more than that. Mary, Sarah, and Ada all talked about how the assistance they received helped restore hope. Hope to begin rebuilding, hope that recovery is possible, and hope for their children’s future.
When you support the Foodgrains Bank, you’re supporting the work of hope in the lives of over one million people around the world. Click here to donate today.
*name changed for security reasons
