© UNHCR/Shawkat Alharfoush
Middle East, Afghanistan and Ukraine
What warmth means to refugees
Three powerful stories to illustrate how you’re helping vulnerable families face winter with safety, dignity and hope.
Middle East, Afghanistan and Ukraine
Three powerful stories to illustrate how you’re helping vulnerable families face winter with safety, dignity and hope.
Across the Northern Hemisphere, winter brings bitter cold and harsh storms – conditions that can be deadly for families already enduring conflict and disaster. But thanks to supporters like you, refugees are receiving warmth, protection and the reassurance that they are not alone.
From safe shelter in Afghanistan, to emotional support in Ukraine, to winter clothing for children in Jordan, your generosity is helping families survive the cold — and rebuild their lives with strength and dignity.
For years, Afghan grandmother Bibi Gul and her family lived in a cave in the mountains of Bamyan – the only place they could find after conflict and land seizures forced them from their home.
“We used to live in a cave, and our life was very difficult,” she says. “Snow and rain would fall, and the mountain would slide.”
The cave had no door, no insulation and no way to keep out the bitter cold. Smoke from their old stove filled the space, and her children were often sick. Some nights they slept under borrowed blankets because they had none of their own.
Everything changed when the village chief introduced her family to UNHCR. With support from generous donors like you, Bibi Gul received a warm new home in time for winter, along with blankets, a heater, cooking supplies and a small solar panel.
“I was so happy I couldn’t sleep,” she says. “We live peacefully now. You gave us comfort when we had nothing.”
At 77, Lyudmyla lives alone in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region. When shelling damaged her home, shattering windows and tearing holes in her roof, the winter cold crept in fast. UNHCR and partners carried out emergency repairs so she could stay warm and safe.
But warmth is more than a repaired home. It’s also human connection.
Once a week, Lyudmyla is visited by a social facilitator through a UNHCR-supported community initiative. The facilitator helps carry coal and firewood, fetch medicine and assist with shopping. Most importantly, they check in on her emotional wellbeing.
“Imagine, I am 77 years old,” she says. “When someone comes to visit me, it means a lot.”
These trained volunteers act as ‘good neighbours’, ensuring older people, people with disabilities and those displaced by war are not left isolated or forgotten.
“People need someone to talk to,” says UNHCR facilitator Lyudmyla Komyrets. “Communication is vital.”
For Syrian refugees living in Jordan’s Za’atari refugee camp, winters are brutally cold. The desert turns to mud and icy winds cut through shelters.
That’s why three-year-old Miral beams with pride as she tries on her new pink winter jacket, helped by a UNHCR staff member. Inside their shelter, she twirls and poses – a budding performer whose imagination stretches far beyond the camp.
Her siblings dream big too. Eleven-year-old Sundus, who walks kilometres through winter mud to reach school, despite having a disability that affects her leg, hopes to become a dentist. Six-year-old Hisham wants to be a police officer and spends winter days climbing the walls inside their home to burn off energy.
These children are full of potential and hope. Thanks to your support, they have warm clothing and blankets to help them face the coldest months of the year.
This winter, your generosity is delivering real, life-changing impact for families like these. Thanks to you, refugees facing freezing temperatures can find warmth, safety and dignity when they need it most.
Your support this winter helps provide:
Thank you for helping refugees stay warm this winter. If you would like to support more people like BiBi Gul, Lyudmyla and Miral, please donate here:
Three powerful stories to illustrate how you’re helping vulnerable families face winter with safety, dignity and hope.
While summer is almost here in Australia, refugees in the Northern Hemisphere are bracing for the toughest time of year.
The majority of funds raised by Australia for UNHCR are directed to UNHCR’s emergency operations, providing the ready funds and resources to respond quickly and effectively in situations of crisis and disaster.