You wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of shouts
and gunfire. The tensions you’ve tried not to worry about have tipped over into violence. Every two seconds, somewhere on the planet, someone is forced to flee for safety. 

In Malaysia, there are over 177,000 refugees in Malaysia and over 46,450 are children below the age of 18. 

Ahmed Led His Family, When Parents Died Fleeing From Somalia

Ahmed, 19 is refugee from Somalia, fled to Malaysia with his siblings and a grandmother. His parents died from war in Somalia but shortly after arriving in Malaysia his grandmother died. Gradually, Ahmed took on the burden of caregiver to his siblings. 

They face huge challenges. Refugees often share living spaces up to over 50 people. There are no choices for them but to take on mostly 3D jobs – dirty, dangerous and difficult & getting extremely low wages or none.

There’s limited or no access to healthcare at all with higher costs for medical care, language barriers, and difficulties in accessing hospitals and clinics physically

Refugee children are unable to access formal education. Over 33,460 of them are of school-going ages, yet only 32% are enrolled in community learning centers.

UNHCR supports 125 refugee learning centers to meet basic educational needs. With the help of Malaysian volunteers, Ahmed and his siblings can speak English and catch up on their education. Today, Ahmed becomes ‘a volunteer teacher’ at refugee learning center for Somali refugee children.  

UNHCR also supports refugees like Ahmad with skills training and community development to help the families to be self-reliant for livelihood, as well as clinics for refugees and medical support for healthcare.