The statistics are staggering. More than 28,000 people are uprooted from their homes each day as a result of war, oppression, and poverty. That’s nearly 20 people per minute.
By the end of 2016, an unprecedented 65.6 million people, from West Africa to South Asia, have been forcibly displaced, making it the world’s worst migrant crisis in history.
The wave of migrants and refugees has overwhelmed the international community, putting a particular strain on neighboring countries and Europe. Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees with nearly 3 million. Pakistan is second. Germany is the only high-income country in the top ten host nations, with about 700,000 refugees and asylum-seekers.
Rotary clubs are doing their part to help alleviate the global refugee crisis with projects that help bring water and health care to refugee camps, funds for families to move to safer countries, and more. Over the last several years, clubs and districts have used roughly $3 million of global grant funds toward refugee-related projects.