Celebrated on July 11, World Population Day is intended to draw attention to the importance of establishing appropriate planning for the growth and development of populations.
According to the UN – United Nations, there is an unequal population growth among nations, since the less developed have many challenges to overcome. Among them are the lack of food, the absence of health and education, the impossibility of access to decent housing, health care and family planning programs.
Evidence of Inequalities
The inequality that generates increasingly vulnerable populations, and which has been demonstrated in the face of sudden climactic changes, has now become even more evident with the emergence of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
According to what was announced by the UNFPA, United Nations Funds for Population Activities, more than200 million women and girls who belong to the poorer populations, members of the indigenous rural communities, want to delay or prevent pregnancy, but have no means to do so.
In these populations, there is a huge gap in family planning, preventable maternal deaths, gender-based violence, and harmful practices such as child marriages and female genital mutilation.
Another aggravating factor of inequality is human displacement, refugees and migrations, often forced by precarious living conditions, or by violence and political conflicts that are growing in number.
The Growth of the Migrant and Refugee Population
Currently, international migrants and refugees represents 3.5% of the global population, in comparison with 2.8% in the year 2,000.
According to data from the UNHCR, United Nations Refugee Agency at the end of 2020, there were more than 80 million people around the would who were forced to leave their hometowns against their will.
According to the latest edition of the Annual Report published by the the institution, the countries generating most refugees in the world are Syria and Venezuela, where the migratory flow entering Brazil originates. The Report also contains other important data, such as the estimate that between 2018 and 2020, one million children were born as refugees, and that 42% of the forcibly displaced people worldwide are under the age of 18.
Actions of Agencies and Organizations in support of Refugees and Migrants
In Brazil, in the State of Roraima, important work is underway, developed by the Humanitarian Logistics Taskforce, which is responsible for the coordination of Operation Welcome, and has responsibilities in all of the logistics of the shelters, the infrastructure, the food contracts, the reception, security and the protection of the teams in partnership with the agencies of the UN, the UNHCR and governmental and civil organizations, among them, the Fraternity – International Humanitarian Federation (FIHF), so that the migrant and refugee population can be duly welcomed and have access to decent living conditions
The UNICEF – United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund is active in the area of Education and Protection of children and adolescents, as well as healthy nutrition, hygiene and sanitation (WASH).
There is the role of UNFPA, which works with the questions of gender, sexual and reproductive health, also offering guidance to the LGBTI population.
Also active is the International Organization for Migration, IOI, which deals with a part of the migration, with squatting groups, which are the informal shelters.
The activities of Humanitarian Fraternity (FIHF)
Humanitarian Fraternity (FIHF) is active in the management of five indigenous shelters, four being in the city of Boa Vista and one in the city of Pacaraima, all in Roraima, and also with the Transit Shelter in Manaus, ATM, where those who are ready to travel to other Brazilian States arrive.
According to Anderson Santiago, lead missionary of Humanitarian Fraternity (FIHF): “in each shelter we have, in partnership with UNHCR, a multifunctional team who is active twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.”
“Our teams are active in community participation, in protection, in the distribution of items of hygiene, in the resolution of conflicts, in bringing awareness on sensitive subjects, in the registration and updating of the census and the identification of the most diverse needs,” explains Anderson.
“Referrals related to questions of health and others, such as questions of social organization, documents or achieving benefits, are done by social assistants,” adds the missionary.
Lasting Solutions
According to Friar Luciano, general manager of Humanitarian Fraternity (FIHF), In this video, for this year of 2021, the main focus of the activities in the Roraima Mission, in Boa Vista and Pacaraima, is to collaborate so that the indigenous population may find an opportunity to rebuild their lives.
It is, thus, in this sense, that the teams are directing their efforts to offer various training courses to those in the shelter, according to Anderson who adds that: “At an economic level, in the part of lasting solutions, in partnership with the UNHCR and Operation Welcome, we coordinate courses of job training in trades such as bricklayer, joiner, dressmaker, hairdresser, cook. And we also have computer and Portuguese language courses with the intention of reaching everyone.”
Partnerships always guarantee the implementation and continuity of projects, states Anderson, “We have partners such as SENAI, SENAC, World Vision and the UNIVIRR – Virtual University of Roraima, which support us in continuing this training. For example, the people who took the course on breadmaking now have a communal kitchen where they can continue training, producing, and even sell.”
There is also the recently inaugurated CCIT – Cultural Center of Indigenous Training, which is coordinated by Humanitarian Fraternity (FIHF), in partnership with Operation Welcome and the UNHCR, which functions as a center for the Lasting Solutions Sector. There, according to Anderson, “we have, for example, sewing machines so that those who took the course can continue to train and produce objects with the possibility of a later sale.”
“We offer all those services guaranteeing both dignity of life in the shelters as well as the possibility of developing actions that help to project activities outside the shelters, seeking autonomy, independence and livelihoods for refugees and migrants,” Anderson concludes.
World Population Day is an opportunity to highlight and give visibility to all these issues, so that more people can be reached and can not only empathized, but also engage and contribute to the eradication of human suffering, helping to build to a sustainable and equitable path for all.
