Right now, as war and violent conflict rage around the world, people just like you are running – for their lives, their families, their dignity and their freedom.  They often have to leave everything behind.  And they leave with nothing but their hope, courage and determination.  They are refugees.
Every year on June 20 the world honors the courage, resilience and strength of refugees. On this seventh anniversary of the United Nations designated World Refugee Day, thousands of organizations in hundreds of countries will come together to focus global attention not only on the plight of refugees and the causes of their exile, but also on their determination and will to survive and on the contributions they make to their host communities.

Pakistan is amongst those countries who are serving a huge number of internally displaced persons and refugees from Afghanistan also. For 4.2 millions of refugees all over the world UNHCR is taking care of the 25% of them.

The theme for this year’s world refugee day is “real people, real needs”, creating awareness about the problems of refugees and urging public to help them.

At their website UNHCR mentions that; A comprehensive assessment of the needs of refugees and other people cared for by the UN refugee agency revealed that 30 percent were unmet – a third of them in basic and essential services. Improvements in nutrition and water supplies, access to primary health care, strengthened child protection programmes, better protection for women from sexual violence and abuse, and improvements in living conditions and sanitation facilities are just some of the needs that are not being met worldwide.

This World Refugee Day we ask you to remember the millions of forcibly displaced and stateless people under our care who are struggling with their day-to-day lives. One thing connects them all: basic needs that must be met so they have a chance to rebuild their lives.

I urge all of you to participate in the events and charity programmes to help refugees all over the world.

How You Can Help:

UNHCR at their website mentions following easy ways to help them on this day.

• Watch Ben Affleck’s Gimme Shelter film

• Face book – Join our Gimme Shelter cause

• My Space – Befriend UNHCR

• Flicker – Go to our photo stream

• Twitter – Follow our live field reports