Healing - Refugee Week 2022

Monday 20 June marked World Refugee Day; beginning a week that is about honouring and celebrating the resilience, courage and contribution of people all over the world who are, or have been, refugees.

The last couple of days I have woken up with an intention to write something here in commemoration of the day/week, and each time I tried, I couldn’t. I was unable to authentically articulate what was in my heart.

?Yesterday, we gathered to celebrate our clients and that generated the much needed inspiration for me to write this. I hope that in some small way, this pays tribute to the individual as well as the collective; those whose journeys have led to the call to acknowledge Refugee Week.

?In 2016, when I started leading Melaleuca Australia, I recall delving into the global landscape of the impact of inhumanity on humanity and I was faced with some staggering dark information that not only scared and angered me, but also opened my eyes to the incredible light that shines within people of all ages on the refugee journey.

?At that time, I discovered that the global population of forcibly displaced people was at an alarming figure of 65.6 million. The UNHCR reported then that 20 people in the world were newly displaced every minute of the day. Such displacement was because of persecution, conflict, violence or human right violations. This outcome was generated as a result of other people’s strong opinions and perceptions – an unquenchable collective need to be right, as well as a fear of being wrong.

Among those forcibly displaced were 22.5 million people who became refugees, and whose plight to access a safe place echoed through the world.

For many people all over the world, these are numbers that remain unimaginable or unfathomable. For others, these numbers conjure a call to action to do something. For those millions of people who add up to the count, it’s the life they are experiencing because of ?circumstance.

?Many of them greet the dawn with the impulse and panic to reach out, touch, see, find, count and call out to their loved ones who have been on this journey with them to ensure they are still by their side. In those waking hours, some will heave a sigh of relief to see their loved ones are still there. Others will bow their heads in new or old sorrow because of loss. They will, despite the emptiness, still fetch enough resilience from within to take the next step forward with heavy hearts and exhausted bodies.

As I reflected on this stark reality, it didn’t escape me that my Board, colleagues and I are among many people in a global community of organisations whose work emerges as the light or shadow to the impact of global conflict on people. I refer to it as both the light and the shadow because if world peace was a reality, we would not exist as an organisation to serve people.

?Given the very nature of us humans to generally wish for that which can only serve us well, in this current reality of having a job that has a direct correlation to the impact caused by war and conflict, we are compelled to look closely at the collateral impact of the things we wish for. To reflect deeply, understand altruism and selflessness and to restore balance through true service to our fellow human beings whose misfortune has generated a place for us to feed our loved ones.?

Almost 7 years on, and despite all the global efforts to address the issue of displacement, the UNHCR tells us that the global displacement figures have now exceeded 100 million. In this short period that has passed, 34 million more people have been displaced. This is more than the size of the entire continent of Australia.?This also means that today 1 in every 78 people on earth has been forced to flee.

So today, as I stood among so many people who are starting to settle here in Darwin, I closed my eyes and I wished for something different for a moment. I put work aside, and allowed myself to travel back into a time where fear can be heard pulsating like a heartbeat. Where hope speaks in a comforting voice, loud and clear. Where resilience is as visible as the road ahead.?Then I opened my eyes again, looked around the park in which we were gathered to celebrate, and I saw my colleagues engaged in so many different conversations. Children running after each other, I heard music, I saw so many stories unfolding as remarkable human beings filled the space with focused conversations,?old journeys taking new directions, new journeys fuelled by determination and the tenacity to live life as best as possible. War has been, and here is the new now.?The contrast of the motion of closing eyes and opening eyes reminded me of what “moment” can do; that every aspect of life is based on a moment and that what we choose to do in every moment shapes the next.

It dawned on me that in this lifetime, we cannot fully change everything external to us or that which is not attached to us. We cannot instantly convert war to peace. However, as a fellow human being I can act within the moment to add to life or to take away from life. The only thing that is within my capacity to change fully, is the actions I take with my mind, my heart and my physical being.

So in this moment, I choose to pay tribute to the remarkable humans who for decades have been fuelled passionately by their individual journeys of displacement, and who through the shadows of those dark times shine light on the world we live in proudly. They are the individuals among us who are everyday ordinary people making an exceptional difference in this world. They are the ones we wish to celebrate on this day, this week, and into the future.?

I am grateful and honoured by every one of them who accept our support, who provide us with the opportunity to learn from them and for the privilege to serve them.?

The theme for Refugee Week this year is ‘Healing’. We, as a human race are responsible for arriving where we are today - a world with the worst ever record of displacement in the history of our earth. The behaviours of violence, persecution and control have harmed many vulnerable people. Healing becomes a life-long journey with many milestones along the way to be celebrated. In order for healing to truly take effect, we, the human race must look at what we have done as a collective, and then again at what we can each do alone in thought, in deed and in heart.?

?This week is about honouring that infant, born into a journey that started before their time, that child who despite all their surroundings blends joy with curiosity. Honouring that adult who knows that faith transcends the momentary pain. That ageing person who remembers the amazing adventures that life gave before now with more to come. That person who, at the time of drawing their last breath, trusts that humanity is not defeated.

?May the day come when organisations like ours all over the world can turn the lights off in our buildings, close our doors, accept that we are no longer needed and bow gracefully in acceptance of the birth of world peace.

Until then, may we serve you well, with all the dignity you deserve and with our deepest gratitude.

?Kwame Selormey

?CEO – Melaleuca Australia?