Stand with refugees on World Refugee Day

On June 20, we recognize the strength and resilience of refugees escaping the world’s harshest conflicts. Learn how to help refugees who need support and essentials.

Written by Amy Legault

on June 19, 2026

I have a confession to make.

My kitchen faucet malfunctioned the other day and it left me irritated.

How am I supposed to wash the dishes, now? I asked myself, as a mere trickle of lukewarm water streamed through. I huffed and slammed cupboards out of frustration. I snapped at my husband for not trying to fix it (when I wanted).

All I wanted was running water and a clean kitchen so I could sit down and relax.

And then, as I start work the next morning, I’m researching World Refugee Day. I’m confronted with the harsh, heart-breaking realities that refugees face day in and day out. And honestly, I felt convicted (and ashamed) of my reaction the night before, wishing I could have been grateful for the clean, running water I did have.

Most refugees don’t have the luxury of running water. Or a kitchen to clean. Or even enough food to feed their household. In fact, a recent World Vision study found that more than half of refugee households were surviving on one meal a day and going to bed hungry.

I needed this wakeup call. And maybe you do, too. But I hope it’s not just a reality check to be more grateful, but an invitation to action.

A female refugee stands in the cooking area of her temporary shelter. A mix of plastic bottles and buckets contain limited resources for food and survival.

Awatif was one year away from completing her medical studies when conflict forced her to flee her home in Sudan. Now living in an Ethiopian refugee camp, she shares a glimpse of her kitchen where she prepares meals. (Photo credit: Bethel Sh

Standing in solidarity on World Refugee Day

Refugees are narrowly escaping conflict, genocide and persecution with little more than the clothes on their back. But, even as refugees seek help in a neighbouring country, life is far from easy.

Refugees need solidarity. They need support. They need hope. They need essentials like clean water, food, healthcare and protection. And that’s something we can help with.

Today, let’s talk about World Refugee Day, what it means and how you can stand in the gap for those fleeing the world’s most dangerous places.

What is World Refugee Day?

World Refugee Day happens every year on June 20. The day exists to honour people who have been forcibly displaced due to conflict, persecution or disaster. We take a moment to recognize their strength, courage and resilience in grave uncertainty. It also calls us to act through support, advocacy and long-term solutions.

World Refugee Day was officially established by the United Nations in 2001. It marks the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention, an international agreement that defines refugee rights and protections.

There are 117.8 million forcibly displaced people in the world, as of the end of 2025. But, at its heart, World Refugee Day reminds us that this massive number represents people with fears, hopes, dreams and stories.

It’s about families separated by war. Children forced to grow up too quickly. Communities struggling to find safety and stability.

World Refugee Day calls us to remember that refugees aren’t defined by what they’ve lost, but by their courage to persevere through hardship and rebuild their lives.

A mother and her son stand at a table to register for assistance in Syria.

Um Ahmad and her child registering with World Vision Syria staff to receive humanitarian assistance. Without legal documentation, refugees are hard-pressed to find food, water, shelter, healthcare and education. (Photo credit: World Vision)

How does someone become a refugee?

A person becomes a refugee when they are forced to flee their home and cross an international border due to threats to their life, safety or freedom. This could be because of war, disaster, violence or a well-founded fear of persecution.

The journey is often perilous. Families leave behind their homes, their livelihoods and security with little more than what they can carry. They could experience dangerous travel conditions, uncertainty and trauma before arriving in a new country. And for many, the danger continues after they’ve reach “safety.”

Hawa, a refugee in Sudan

Consider Hawa’s story. This mother of ten was forced to flee her home in Sudan’s Darfur region after violent military conflict destroyed her community. What she hoped would be a flight to safety turned into a painful struggle in a crowded refugee camp in Jebel Marra.

Hawa shares the heartbreaking reality, “Our situation here is bad. We go out to beg. We do not have money for water or food. The children have no clothes now.” For Hawa and thousands of other families, every day is a fight to survive. With every cut to humanitarian aid, the resources are depleted. Her children are at serious risk of hunger and illness.

A mother sits on the dusty ground, embracing her malnourished baby.

Hawa's baby suffers from malnutrition. Every day she hopes that more aid and resources will come so that her children can eat. (Photo credit: Brian Weramondi)

World Vision’s work supporting Sudanese refugees

Despite these hardships, World Vision is working in the camp to provide food aid, cash support, clean water, healthcare and protection for children and survivors. We also offer emotional and mental health support to help families cope with trauma.

More help is still needed. And, families like Hawa’s continue to rely on urgent aid and generous support to survive and rebuild their lives.

Life as a refugee: Six challenges

Every refugee’s story is unique. Each one carries a weight that others may never fully understand. Yet, we can catch a small glimpse of the layered challenges refugees regularly face.

A young boy stands in front of temporary shelters built of tarps in a Sudanese refugee camp.

Temporary shelters don’t provide any sense of security in this Sudanese refugee camp. (Photo credit: Grace Mavhezha)

1. Lack of shelter and safety

You wake up in a panic, hearing a military group approaching your village. If you don’t run now, your sons will be made soldiers and your daughters treated brutally. So, you pack up what provisions you have, wake your children and run.

Exhausted and hyped on adrenaline, you arrive at a refugee camp. Temporary shelters fill the view with makeshift metal structures, tarps and sticks. There are no locks or deadbolts. You don’t know what nefarious threats lurk outside your dwelling. But, this is home, for now.

The fact is, even after fleeing danger, there’s no guarantee of safety. More than 76 per cent of refugees reported having no shelter, living in emergency shelters or inadequate shelter conditions.

As a result of poor shelter and turmoil, refugees may also face:

Exploitation or violence
Discrimination or exclusion
Lack of legal protection
Kidnapping

“We cannot go outside the camp for work due to fear of kidnapping or the police,” an adult Bangladeshi female stated in a World Vision report.

2. Poor access clean water and food

Governments cut funding. Rations are running out. It hasn’t rained in weeks. And you don’t know where your family’s next meal is coming from.

As a parent, you portion out pieces of bread to feed your hungry children while sacrificing your own share. One of your children complains of hunger pangs while you attempt to silence your own.

Thirty-seven per cent of refugee households have experienced cuts to their food rations over the past 12 months. While the food dwindles, the problem overflows into other areas—especially for children.

Children belonging to food-insecure households are:

7.8 times more likely to be forced into child marriage
4.7 times more likely to endure family separation
3.9 times more likely to drop out of school
3.4 times more likely to experience abuse and neglect

A mother and her three children sit together, sharing a nutritious meal.

At the Gambella refugee camp in Ethiopia, South Sudanese families have received food assistance through World Vision. (Photo credit: Samuel Zerihun)

3. Lack of economic stability and self-reliance

You’ve escaped to another country. But, how do you find work?

Your hands are tied. Without legal documentation, without the ability to own land, without freedom to move outside the camp, without cash for business capital, jobs are hard to come by. The rules and regulations make it extremely difficult to provide for your family.

Access to employment helps refugee families become self-reliant and yet, across all countries, only 1.5 per cent of households report working full-time with legal documentation in a 2026 World Vision study.

Fortunately, work is being done. World Vision is actively connecting with refugee communities to infuse cash and reduce red tape so families can gain employment and stability.

A Venezuelan refugee family pose in front of their food stand.

Yesleidy and Miguel escaped Venezuela and arrived as refugees in Colombia. Through World Vision, they received financial support to strengthen their bakery business. Miguel shares, “[W]hen they told us our family business was approved, it w

4. Long-term emotional and psychological impact

Refugees witness and experience unspeakable things—violent horrors of the most inhumane kind, various forms of abuse, heightened levels of fear and the loss of loved ones.

Children are robbed of their innocence when they endure such atrocities. The invisible wounds of emotional and psychological trauma can have a life-long impact that needs to be addressed.

Twenty-two per cent of refugee households reported concerning behavioural or emotional symptoms in their children including:

Crying or screaming
Being less talkative
Being less playful or not playing
Refusing to go to school
Becoming more withdrawn

Humanitarian crisis support must go beyond physical care. It must be holistic, reaching into the emotional, mental and psychological realms. That’s why World Vision Canada provides child-friendly spaces for play and support for parents and caregivers to manage stress in refugee camps. Learn more about our approach to mental health support in disasters and crises.

A facilitator leads a group of Ukrainian children in an arts activity at a child-friend space in Kyiv.

A Child-Friendly Space in Kyiv, provides essential services despite ongoing winter blackouts. Children can access non-formal education and psychosocial support that would otherwise be disrupted by the lack of power and internet. (Photo cred

5. Poor access to healthcare

A lot can happen in a refugee camp. Cuts. Scrapes. Bumps. Bruises. Wounds of war. Malnutrition. Disease. Viral outbreaks. Infections. Fires…need I go on? Close quarters and poor sanitation can wreak havoc in a community with little infrastructure.

Only nine per cent of refugee households were able to access the healthcare they needed in the past three months.

Yes, there’s a lack of medical supplies and healthcare practitioners, but refugees also experience social and cultural barriers. Refugees may not speak the same language as medical staff or they may experience discrimination. If they don’t have legal documentation, their healthcare might be denied altogether.

A Sudanese woman holds her baby awaiting medical care at a refugee clinic.

World Vision staff conduct health screenings, vaccinations, reproductive health consultations and nutritional assessments at El Ferduouse clinic, South Darfur. This clinic is a lifeline for a community facing high rates of hunger and diseas

6. Disrupted education

When children are fighting for survival, education often takes a back seat. Yet, it’s one of the most critical lifelines in uncertain times. It brings a sense of accomplishment, growth, social interaction and normalcy. Access to education directly impacts a child’s future.

Instead of reading, learning, problem solving and playing, refugee children are begging, working and marrying. In fact, nearly half of refugee children are out of school.

In South Sudan, Shufa (name changed to protect identity) explains, “If I returned to school, I would be happy and would make friends. But since I came here … I have not held a book. I am almost forgetting how to read.”

Without education, futures hang in the balance. Children face a greater risk of poverty and exploitation.

But, when we band together and advocate for child refugees’ education, we’re fighting for their very lives. For their survival. For better opportunities and brighter futures.

A group of Venezuelan refugee children share a time of laughter and games in Colombia.

World Vision is dedicated to supporting education for refugee children. In Cúcuta and Guajira, Colombia, World Vision seeks to reduce the disruption to education by providing space places for children to gather and learn. (Photo credit: Eri

Win’s story: A Rohingya refugee

In August 2017, thousands of Rohingya people fled to southern Bangladesh due to extreme persecution and genocide.

Now, more than 1.2 million have fled Myanmar to escape the threat of violence. Over half are children. Children, like 12-year-old Win, have spent the majority of their childhood in what has become the long-term refugee camp of Cox’s Bazar.

Deprived of essentials. Deprived of safety. Deprived of childhood.

They face fear on a daily basis. Fear of kidnapping. Fear of conflict within the camp. Fear of child marriage. Fear of the future.

A Rohingya girl walks through Cox’s Bazar, a refugee camp in Bangladesh.

Win's days are filled with school, religious studies and helping at home. Through World Vision's PEACE project, she's been learning about topics rarely discussed openly in her community, including health, hygiene and sexual and reproductive

“I think about what will happen to my future if I don’t study,” says Win. “If I am not educated, how will I educate my children?”

Yet she clings to hope. Win dreams of becoming a doctor one day, to care for women and girls in a community where female practitioners are scarce.

For Win, having support for education is a pathway to safety and a different future. She can stay in school, build her confidence and keep her dreams alive.

A World Vision worker and several children laugh, smile and dance together in an Ethiopian refugee camp.

How can I help refugees?

Together, we can help refugees rebuild their futures. With grit and resilience, they fight to survive and push to dream of something better.

It’s one thing to read about World Refugee Day; it’s another thing to act. After my kitchen faucet incident, I certainly want to be a part of the solution—offering tangible support and solidarity.

If you’re ready to stand with refugees, here are a few ways you and I can turn that passion into action.