How to Help Widowed Women in Refugee Camps?

Helping widowed refugee women to have a dignified life is indeed a humanitarian duty and a noble cause. 

Thousands of widows are living in miserable conditions with their children in refugee camps. 

They are deprived of their basic rights, such as shelter, nutrition, healthcare, and education.

This article highlights the needs of that vulnerable refugee category as well as ways to assist them.

Providing Financial Assistance

There are many ways whereby local NGOs and charities can help and provide widows with financial assistance. These include the following:

• Partnering with global organizations that provide financial aid to refugee camps.

• Holding a special fund for widowed women in refugee camps to allow them to access funds for basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter.

• Providing widowed refugees with financial literacy training, skill-building workshops, and job opportunities.

• Supporting widowed women in refugee camps with microcredit programs provide them with small loans, which allow them to start a business or pursue an entrepreneurial opportunity.

• Creating a grant program that awards financial assistance to refugee widows pursuing a college or university education.

Providing Job Training and Employment Opportunities

Offering women with job training and employment opportunities is crucial to aid them financially. Therefore, below are some effective guidelines for achieving this:

•  Partnering with global NGOs to provide access to job training and employment opportunities. 

• Providing widowed women with access to a computer and internet technology to pursue their educational and employment goals.

• Establishing a Skills and Job Bank to provide a thorough list of available job training and job opportunities available to widowed women in refugee camps.

• Partnering with local employers and businesses to provide employment opportunities to widows in refugee camps.

•  Advocating for better access to education for widowed women in refugee camps so that they can gain the skills needed for diverse job opportunities.

Providing Education Opportunities for Their Children

Providing educational opportunities for the children of widowed refugees will help improve the quality of their lives substantially. Here are some tips on conducting this:

1. Setting up special programs that provide free or discounted-price access to educational resources, such as school supplies, textbooks, and technology.

2. Creating tutoring programs that teach these children basic reading and math skills.

3. Partnering with local universities and NGOs to provide scholarships and job training for refugee widowed women’s children.

4. Developing community-based education initiatives that bring together teachers, volunteers, and local organizations to provide educational opportunities for refugee children.

5. Utilizing mobile learning technologies such as tablets and smartphones to facilitate access to education for those living in refugee camps.

Offering Legal Assistance

Offering legal assistance to refugee widows and their children is the first step to protecting and securing their rights. 

Thus, below are some steps that can effectively help provide widowed women and their children in refugee camps with legal assistance:

1. Partnering with local organizations specializing in providing legal assistance to refugee children and their families. 

2. Advocating for policies that provide better legal protection for refugee women and their children. 

3. Raising awareness of the legal needs of refugee children and their families. 

4. Supporting local organizations that provide legal assistance and support to refugee children and their families.

Providing Healthcare Services

Providing healthcare services is an essential right for widowed refugee women and their children. Here are some steps to help in this process: 

• Assess the needs of widowed refugees and develop a plan for providing thorough healthcare services. 

•  Partnering with primary care providers that can provide healthcare services to widowed refugees. 

•  Developing programs and policies to ensure widowed refugees have access to healthcare services, such as mental health counseling, primary care, and health screenings. 

• Connecting widowed refugees with support groups, mentoring programs, and legal aid clinics to help them access the healthcare services they need. 

• Setting up a special fund to provide financial assistance for widowed refugees seeking healthcare services. 

• Educating the community on the significance of providing healthcare services to widowed refugees.

Offering Childcare Services

To offer childcare services to widowed women in refugee camps, NGOs and non-profits can apply the following recommendations:

1. Cooperating with local childcare centers to provide childcare services to widowed refugees. 

2. Providing educational programs and workshops for childcare providers to help them better understand the healthcare needs of widowed refugees. 

3. Offering childcare subsidies to widowed refugees struggling to afford childcare services.

At Bonyan Organization, we strive to offer refugee widows and their children the assistance they need. 

As many widowed women live with their children in worn-out tents in these harsh weather conditions, they are constantly exposed to many dangers.

These dangers are even more compounded by their day in day out struggle to meet their basic needs.

Thus, seeking to help them, our “ Provide Basic Homes For Syrian Widows & Families” aims at building 100 homes to shelter these vulnerable women and their children.

Offer those women a helping hand by donating at the link below:

(click here)

Resources 

• UNHCR Policy on Refugee Women and Guidelines on Their Protection
• Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women. 
• The Effect of the Logotherapy-Based Group Psychological Counseling Program on Widowed Syrian Refugee Women’s Well-Being.

FAQs