Subscribe
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has launched a new campaign to bring help to and raise awareness of the recent refugee crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes due to recent conflicts in the region. Together with actor Ben Affleck, the Gimme Shelter campaign aims to bring much needed food, medicine, and shelter to the huge masses of people living in temporary refugee camps.
Part of this campaign includes the Gimme Shelter film, produced by Affleck and cinematographer John Toll, which portrays daily life for the victims of the conflict in the North Kivu region. The Rolling Stones donated the Gimme Shelter song to the cause as well.
Renewed violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has triggered a humanitarian crisis forcing more than 250,000 people, many of them already displaced, to flee their homes, bringing a forgotten crisis to the world’s attention.
In the last three months alone, hundreds of thousands of innocent children, women and men displaced by the conflict have lost their homes, their belongings, their family, their friends and their hope.
-UNHCR
The following photos were taken at the Nakivale refugee settlement, some 300km away from the Congolese boarder, hosting refugees mainly from the DRC, Rwanda, Somalia, Burundi, Ethiopia and Eritrea. Nakivale is the settlement that is receiving all newly arrived Congolese refugees in Uganda, the Kabazana Reception Center being located inside the settlement, where refugees receive hot meals and basic health care.
UNHCR hopes the Gimme Shelter campaign will help raise US$23 million in 2009 to pay for clean water supplies and emergency humanitarian assistance kits for tens of thousands of internally displaced Congolese.
©ZALMAÏ 2008 for UNHCR
©ZALMAÏ 2008 for UNHCR
©ZALMAÏ 2008 for UNHCR
©ZALMAÏ 2008 for UNHCR
©ZALMAÏ 2008 for UNHCR
Finally, the UNHCR is encouraging everyone to spread the word by sharing the short film and photos that we’ve displayed here.
Help us and Ben Affleck bring attention to the plight of North Kivu’s displaced civilians. All you have to do is post UNHCR photos of this humanitarian crisis on your blogs, websites and social media platforms. This will help raise public awareness about the suffering and needs of the displaced as well as giving hope to those whose lives have been affected.
-UNCHR
For more information, check out unhcrshelter.org, unhcr.org, or the UNHCR Gimme Shelter photo collection on Flickr.