Story type: Story

We meet Djordjie first thing in on a typically busy morning at the centre. He’s overseeing the arrivals of new refugees while dozens of men and boys who have spent the night in the centre, sheltering from the cold Belgrade winter, are starting to wake. The centre is warm, but the smell of dozens of unclean bodies is inescapable as many of the arrivals haven’t slept indoors, or had access to washing facilities, for many weeks or months.

I am the eighth of ten children, I have 8 sisters and one brother. My family didn’t agree for me to leave – it was my own idea, but they were angry and I fell out with my family. They didn’t want me to come to Europe, they wanted me to stay with them – I was just 15 when I left. But there is nothing left of our home, and some of my sisters live in Turkey now. I tried living there but I was working for 16 or 17 hours each day, for very little money. Not enough to send for my family from Syria.

18-year-old Loujayn was born in Homs, Syria. Two years into the war and after her father passed away, she fled to Lebanon with her mother and four siblings.

“Back in Syria, everything was different. My husband was working and I had the time to take care of the house and my children,” recalls the 37-year-old woman from Aleppo. “But now, I have to be both, the father and the mother”.

We know that a lack of access to finance is one of the major barriers facing women entrepreneurs in marginalised communities across the world. The women entrepreneurs we work with every day at CARE tell us, and so do the statistics: 80% of women-owned businesses with credit needs are either unserved or underserved. This is equivalent to a massive $1.7 trillion financing gap.

In the aftermath of Cyclone Idai, the Púnguè River in Mozambique overflowed, causing catastrophic flooding across Mutua, a village in the district of Dondo. This village became the site of a large displacement camp supported by CARE.

Eid has always had a special place in my heart. When I was young, the evening before Eid was filled with warmth and anticipation. Since the beginning of the war – over four years ago – life has changed for everyone in Yemen.

March 2018, a fierce offensive left Eastern Ghouta in rubble, with more than 1,000 people killed in only one month. Sara*, is one of those who fled to Idlib to save their lives, but as violence escalates day by day in the northwestern governorate, she finds herself and her children in danger once more.

May 2018 marked a turning point when the International Labour Organisation (ILO) agreed to establish a global Convention to protect workers everywhere—now we must all see to it that this Convention is adopted during #ILO100 when the International Labour Conference convenes in June 2019.