According to UNICEF, in 2020, 19 million children were displaced* within their country due to conflict, violence or natural disasters. Such migration disrupts education and fosters negative coping strategies such as child labour, child marriage, sexual exploitation and child trafficking. It also poses many problems regarding access to essential services: safe housing, water, sanitation, health care and psychological support. With the multi-country “PEACE” programme, launched at the beginning of 2022, Asmae is carrying out actions in favour of nearly 8,000 displaced children in Burkina Faso, Egypt and the Philippines.

*“Lost at home”, 2020

Asmae teams are dealing with acute situations of internal migration in several countries:

In Burkina Faso, internal displacement is mainly linked to armed violence due to unrest in the Sahel region. Asmae’s objective is to strengthen access to, and the quality of, services and interventions for young children in areas of high vulnerability.

In Egypt, the ragpicker neighbourhoods of Ezbet el Nakhl, El Marg and Manshiyat Naser are home to populations from Upper Egypt who migrated to Cairo in the 1960s for economic reasons. Soeur Emmanuelle shared their daily lives for nearly 20 years. In these areas, Asmae works to improve protection services for vulnerable children.

In the Philippines, the indigenous Sama Ba’jau people are being forced to leave their home island of Mindanao due to conflict and the development of mining projects in the area. The aim is to build and develop a programme of education and child protection, as well as youth empowerment, with this population. It would be adapted to their specific needs and promote their particular status and rights.