On Sunday the 4th of November, my local church hosted a “refugee experience” organised by a Swiss based charity called Medair. 

The "refugee experience" demonstrated the conditions in which the refugees have had to live in for the past 5 years. Of the 200 strong congregation, roughly 20 people experienced this. This is the approximate number of people living in one tent at any given time. The aim of this event was to raise awareness about the functions of Medair. 

Medair is a charity for refugees. It helps in 3 categories: health and nutrition; providing shelter; water, sanitation and hygiene.

What they do in health and nutrition is provide the correct medical and nutritional needs of the people. This is done by responding to health emergencies and famines as well as strengthening existing health clinics. Their effectiveness is demonstrated by the 82,144 patients that they treated in clinics in Syria.

By providing shelter for refugees, the Medair team has given shelter to 58,605 people in South Sudan.

Greater access to safe water is vital for a healthy life and this is precisely what Medair is attempting to tackle. To do this, the teams create wells, borehole, spring protection and provide the necessary equipment for rainwater harvesting.

“Last year, 68.5 million people fled their homes”. This is nearly 2 million more than the population of the UK, according to UN estimates. 57% of these people come from 3 countries: Afghanistan, Syria and South Sudan.

At the moment, more than 5.7 million South Sudanese are incapable of sustaining themselves due to a lack of food. This number is expected to rise in the next coming years. Nearly 2 million people have fled the conflict to neighbouring countries since December 2013 including 1 million who have fled to Uganda. A total of almost 4 million people have been displaced from their homes.

People do not want to leave their homes, this is only done as a last resort. This is because they are abandoning not only their home but also their way of life, culture, job, loved ones, sense of identity amongst many other things. Yet many of them still risk their lives to flee their countries.

Christopher Trott, UK special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, explains why the South Sudanese have been forced to leave their homes. 

He explains that this is as a result of  the civil war, which has pitted political opponents against each other - including the former Vice President and the current president - to gain control of the country’s natural wealth. These two parties have exploited tribal differences in the country to gain more and more followers leading to a more violent conflict.

The final destination for a lot of these people is London, and this has made the people of London more xenophobic than in recent years - this being the main reason for Brexit.