By Professor Sheila the Baroness Hollins, founder and Chair of Beyond Words
We have all watched reports from Afghanistan in recent days with a growing sense of horror as we have seen people fleeing for their lives. Terrified, confused, and often hungry, having left everything behind to try and save their families.
I have tried to imagine what I would do in their situation and how would I protect my family, especially as a woman. I must confess, I do not know, and the thought of being in that situation is frankly frightening. My heart goes out to all of those in Afghanistan. Their extraordinary bravery and courage in the face of such adversity is humbling.
The additional complication that I would personally face if I was in their desperate situation is that I am the mother of four children, one of whom has learning and communication disabilities. It has made me reflect deeply on the often invisible and ignored challenges many Afghans will be enduring, in addition to the visible and graphic horrors we see on our TV screens.
Many of us will have seen the footage of a baby being lifted over a barbed wire wall into a U.S. Marine’s arms and have read about the many mothers, throwing their babies over barriers in desperation to save them. But what about those Afghans who are carers of disabled relatives? Including those with learning disabilities? Many of whom will likely be struggling to understand why their world has just been turned upside down and why they are running away from their homes. Leaving behind everything that makes them feel safe and calm.
The media rarely focus on the struggles of disabled people in humanitarian crises. The irony being, of course, that they often need greater help than someone who is able-bodied. Sometimes more than an able-bodied child too.
Millions of people become refugees every year and it is believed one in seven are disabled children or adults. Many refugees will have no words to describe the trauma they have been through in their own language; let alone in the language of the strange new country they may find themselves in. A situation made worse if they have arrived in a country via a means other than official routes, resulting in them being detained for who knows how long.
Being forced to flee your home and leave behind everything you know is terrifying and confusing. For someone with learning disabilities or autism the situation is amplified beyond comprehension. This is a huge challenge for the local organisations working with them, including interpreters, who often have very little experience of working with disabled refugees.
Wordless stories can be particularly helpful for many people in refugee communities because they are not language-dependent. This is why our amazing team has stepped up to respond to the crisis and we have today published a new FREE resource to help refugees and local organisations cross the language divide.
We have been developing a refugee focused story for a while, testing it with refugees in the UK and their children. The feedback has been that it helps them to feel heard, understood and that their trauma is validated. They have told us that the pictures are powerful and give an accurate representation of their experience.
We intend to publish the whole story in early 2022, but we wanted to do something now given the sudden crisis in Afghanistan. So we have published a short story, using some of the images, to try and help those who need urgent support today.
The same as with all of our books, our new refugee story has been created with therapeutic intent. Through carefully considered illustrations, we hope it will help people to make sense of their experience and trauma, as well as put into words what they are feeling.
This new story is not just for refugees of course, nor just for people who have learning disabilities. It can be used with people who can read but learn more easily through visuals, for example school children, people with mental health challenges or autism, amongst many others.
Please could we ask for your help in spreading the word through sharing the link to our new refugee story on your social media channels.
We greatly appreciate your support, thank you.