Story type: Story

Lack of sanitary pads, essential hygiene items and safe drinking water have turned simple activities into a daily ordeal for women and girls in Gaza.

Kholoud, a CARE community activator, now living as a refugee in Turkey, shares her longing to return home in Syria, after being displaced multiple times.

People are like birds, they want to return to their nests. However, prolonged displacement, and the instability of the front line are still holding people back from returning to this small town of Luch in Ukraie, where there is not a single surviving house, as of today.

Fleeing their village due to repeated shelling, Samira* and her family of 13 people have been living in a refugee camp in Northwest Syria for five years now. In this account, she shares the difficulties faced due to displacement, with scarcity of water, poor sanitation, and living in tents with no protection from the cold.

In this interview, Yasmin*, 33, talks about her family's recent displacement, children’s poor nutritional status, the fear of being attacked, and how helpless it makes her feel that she can no longer make her children smile.

In this interview, Basem*, a 48 year old man from Gaza talks about the challenges of finding food for his children, lack of water and sanitation facilities, and the memories of the house he has built with his own hands.

Sara*, 36,shares with CARE how her life has changed since the attack on Rafah, which has left her family to struggle for food and water.

While millions of women around the world continue to have no access to menstrual protection, putting hteir health at sever risk, menstrual taboo and certain false beliefs further prevents them from living their periods with dignity.

Zenab*, a 33 year old pregnant woman shares the hardships she has encountered over the past months and the challenges she has faced in getting medical check-ups during a high-risk pregnancy, living in a war zone for eight months now.