Refugees

Day 6

Definition: A refugee is a person who flees his/her home to escape invasion, oppression, or persecution.  They genuinely risk serious human rights abuses.

75-80% of the world's refugees are women and children.

Women and children refugees are vulnerable to violence and exploitation by military and immigration personnel, bandit groups, male refugees and rival ethnic groups.

A portion of the book..."The girl told Hawa that if she and her children wanted safety inside Chad, she would need asylum.  That's why Hawa agreed to visit the girl's uncle who helped people like Hawa: women who couldn't read or write.  Asylum is why Hawa agreed to his price, only because she needed his help to complete the form. 

If Hawa had learned to read and write, she would have printed, in neat, clean letters of her own:

Name:  Hawa Fentale
Sex:  Female
Age:  24
Country of Origin:  Sudan
Family Members:  Husband (deceased)
                              2 children (female aged 3, male ages 8 months)

But Hawa cannot write.  She can only look at the government form that weighs heavily in her hand and wonder what other question remain.  Hawa waits through the night unaware that there is a child growing in her womb, a child that does not belong to her dead husband.  Between pangs of hunger and cries from her children, Hawa imagines what life will hold when her family is given asylum in Chad, and how as a stranger and a widow she will find a home.  In the morning, she will bring the white government form to the girl's uncle again and pay his price so she can answer another question."  (30 Days of Prayer for the Voiceless)

As I read this book, I am overwhelmed with gratefulness that I was born into this nation.  A nation that values women and nation that seeks to protect those who are defenceless.  While in so many other places women and children are shamelessly exploited for others personal gain.

 Father God we know you are compassionate and we ask you pour out your compassion on these people who are displaced and seeking to find asylum.  Father raise up compassionate aid workers to help those in need and we pray your judgement would fall on those who seek to exploit the helpless.  Oh Lord have mercy upon these peole that they might know you and the freedom that comes from being a child of God.  I pray protection over them. Amen.