Since the conflict in Ukraine began, towns and villages in the west of the country find themselves hosting large numbers of internally displaced people – mostly the elderly, women and children – in whatever rooms they can find. Spare classrooms, barns and clinic waiting rooms are all pressed into service in communities which scarcely have enough resources for their own people.

Crossroads’ Ukrainian partner has, for many years, been working to bridge the gap between rapidly developing cities and rural communities that are among the poorest in Europe. In the past, we sent multiple shipments of items including hospital beds and equipment, school furniture, computers and electrical appliances that have been much used and well cared for. Now the need is even greater as much of the population has fled because of the war, heading for safer parts of Ukraine or over the border to Poland.

This will be the third shipment to our partners, sending more household furniture, bedding, clothes, and toys to benefit the many displaced people now sharing the space of those already fighting poverty.

Providing warmth is an essential aim of anyone helping displaced people, and residents are shown here with items from the previous shipment.

Like many developing nations, Malawi’s cities and towns have seen rapid economic growth and development this century. In contrast, rural areas still depend largely on subsistence farming, with few chances for self-improvement. This shipment supported a group working in those rural communities to help children and youth gain the same opportunities available to their peers in urban areas.

“These essential resources to support our programs are truly exciting.” NGO director

Our partners focus on expanding educational opportunities but also collaborate with local NGOs in other areas, including medical care, children’s homes, and microfinance. These partner groups also benefited from the shipment, receiving hospital beds, neonatal and paediatric supplies, clothing, furniture, stationery, appliances, and computers.

For our education partners, though, the real highlights were the furniture, equipment, and supplies that enabled them to serve nearly 800 additional students—from preschool to vocational training—giving them access to the education they deserve. More than 500 families were spared the financial strain of buying school supplies, and 80 teachers were thrilled to finally have chairs, desks, computers, and filing cabinets in their staffrooms.

A metal-working student in a vocational training class takes advantage of the capabilities of one of the electric table saws from the shipment.

BEFORE: Crossroads’ partner has focused on building rural classrooms to keep children in school, even during the rainy season. However, the urgent need for these buildings has left no funds for essential furniture.

AFTER: The same classroom (and others like it!) are now equipped with desks and chairs for both students and teachers.

Madalitso is a keen Form 1 student but the 10 kilometre walk to school and then home again afterwards left him too exhausted to complete his homework. Receiving a bicycle from this shipment has improved both his grades and his mood greatly!

Two industrial sewing machines from the shipment now take pride of place in the tailoring workshop.

Vocational training students were also delighted to have lecture chairs in their previously empty classroom.

One kindergarten class is enthralled with some of the picture books the school received to establish its own library.

When we first started partnering with this group in Cameroon in 2010, they were planning and working on providing basic education in rural areas of the country, where poverty was endemic and literacy was a luxury.

Their work was enthusiastically welcomed in local communities and has grown rapidly. Our partners were also pioneers in providing education for orphans as well as providing holistic support for families, from cooking utensils to basic health care.

Then violence erupted (and continues) between different language groups in the region and this NGO found themselves sourcing and providing relief for the thousands of internally displaced people, mostly women and children.

Our partner NGO continues to expand their work, including vocational training for those who graduate from their schools – this includes options such as fish or chicken farming, well-digging and carpentry.

Crossroads has been privileged to support this work over the years and we are now preparing a fourth shipment to the group, to include more educational supplies and furniture as well as basic items for the ongoing work with displaced people.

There the mats were distributed among family groups like this one, who live in makeshift shelters like the one below.

Mary (not her real name) was left with nothing after her home and village were burnt down in escalating violence in the primarily English-speaking area of the country. Despite having no money and being mobility-impaired, she somehow managed to reach a regional centre where our partner group was able to provide her with clothes, basic household supplies and encouragement that allowed her to start rebuilding her life. As well as educational supplies, our upcoming shipment will include clothing and household necessities to help many others like Mary.

Ghana is considered one of Africa’s success stories, with a stable government and strong economic growth. It is rich in human and natural resources – notably gold and oil. There are however still some “left behind” areas that lack the infrastructure which would allow residents to enjoy the advantages of town- and city-dwellers.

Our partners work in just such a rural area, where they concentrate their efforts on water supply, healthcare education and children’s schooling. Crossroads’ previous shipment to them has had such varied results as reducing workplace injuries, increasing school enrolment and retention rates and providing rural communities with computer training opportunities and internet access.

The success of these initiatives has led to an increasing number of requests for help from previously unreached communities and we are happy to have the opportunity to send another shipment that will improve the lives of thousands more people.

As well as more computer equipment and school supplies, this container will include hospital furniture and electrical appliances to help equip a new regional hospital. Bicycles – the best mode of transport in an area with few made roads – will be included for medical staff and teachers working in remote villages.

A generous donor supplied a large quantity of new toys in time to be included in our previous shipment to this partner group in Ghana. These toys were distributed among a number of schools in deprived rural areas, where many children had never before had a toy of their own. The joy and anticipation on these children’s faces clearly shows how much these gifts mean to them.

Computers, furniture, school bags and stationery supplies from the previous shipment were shared among five rural secondary schools.

A huge gas explosion devastated a village close to our partner’s base at about the same time as the previous shipment from Crossroads arrived. Clothing and household goods from the shipment were immediately sent to the disaster area where grateful families collected items to help start their lives anew.

Safety boots and solid shoes from Crossroads’ previous shipment to this group were distributed to agricultural labourers and construction workers, many of whom had previously been working barefoot. Our partner wrote, “They were thrilled with joy, and tears on their faces, as they received the shoes!”

Cameroon has been the experience of hundreds of thousands of people in western areas of Cameroon. For nearly the past decade, violence between different linguistic groups has left villages destroyed, many men dead, and women and children have fled to more peaceful areas with only the clothes on their backs. Then last year this same area of the country suffered the worst flooding in living memory –buildings were destroyed, crops washed away, and both long-term residents and displaced people alike were left with nothing.

“Over 10,000 people have received direct benefit from this shipment.” Partners’ report

One of Crossroads’ long-term partners in the area reached out for emergency assistance and we were pleased to be able to offer a full container load of the most desperately needed items, including clothing and shoes, school furniture and equipment, nursing supplies, luggage and waterproof (hospital) mattresses that allowed people to sleep at least a few inches off the still soggy ground.
Our partners reported that the inclusion of kitchen appliances and dining ware had also allowed them to set up a community kitchen with the twin aims of feeding the homeless and training young people to work in the hospitality industry.

“Donations from Crossroads remain one of the best things that ever happen to us.” NGO director

Workers start unloading furniture that will help to re-equip schools that had been destroyed by the flooding.

Women collecting clothes for themselves and their families at a flood relief distribution organized by our partners.

A woman stands among the remains of her family’s home and possessions after the devastating floods that hit the South West Region of Cameroon last year.

Two young flood victims collect new shoes. Our partner reported, “Shoes really facilitate school attendance and prevent diseases and injuries of the feet.”

Nearly 30 years ago, a small group of women came together with the vision of empowering local women and children in poverty through education, allowing them to move out of dire poverty into stable and self-sufficient lifestyles. Since then, they have established two primary schools, a vocational school, agricultural training and a micro-credit scheme for rural women.

Then, at the end of 2016, regional conflicts overflowed and the area in which this group was working became a safe haven for hundreds of thousands of people (mostly women and children) who had lost everything. Suddenly all our partner’s programmes needed to expand massively. Crossroads has previously sent two shipments to this group, and as the needs continue to grow, we are now preparing a third container load.

This shipment will include a great deal of school furniture, computers, small electrical appliances such as irons and food blenders (that will assist women in starting small businesses), nursing supplies, stationery, bedding, clothes and kitchen wares for distribution among newly arrived displaced people, and of course toys to brighten children’s lives!

This internally displaced family of nine people had been sleeping on the floor for more than a year when a previous Crossroads shipment arrived and they received beds, mattresses and warm blankets.

Our partners train facilitators for the “Radio Education” service that provides for continuing literacy and numeracy classes for some 20,000 internally displaced children. Many groups like this one meet in informal, outdoor settings.

One of the primary schools set up by our partners specifically to cater for orphans and vulnerable children. More than 15,000 children who would not have had any other opportunity to attend school have graduated in the 22 years since the school was established.

Lebanon’s ports and roads have served as a gateway between east and west, north and south for over 5,000 years. In the past, the area’s various kingdoms and rulers were able to use this to build wealth, prestige and more advanced infrastructure. This century however has seen a combination of government and financial collapse, and nearby natural and humanitarian disasters upending the nation’s prosperity. Not only are the vast majority of the people coming to use this gateway these days desperately needing help rather than contributing to the economy, but more than 80% of the local population has been plunged into poverty in the past four years.

With this shipment, Crossroads continues a partnership with a group that works with both local Lebanese people and with refugees in Lebanon and surrounding areas providing immediate poverty relief supplies and establishing clinics, schools and income generation projects in the most needy areas.

We are packing clothes and shoes, computers, school and domestic furniture, wheelchairs, stationery, sleeping bags and kitchen equipment in this container.

Refugees lining up for assistance outside the UNHCR compound in Tripoli, Lebanon.

As more and more refugees arrive, informal settlements like this one spring up in areas like the Bekaa Valley. Photo credit: Wallpaper Flare

Simply in order for their families to survive, many refugee children in the middle east are sent out to work. This photo was taken in Jordan.
Photo credit: UNHCR 

Refugees in Lebanon
Lebanon hosts more refugees per capita of local population, and more per square kilometre, than any other country.

There are an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees, only about half of whom are registered with the UNHCR. The Lebanese government stopped registration of new Syrian arrivals in 2015. Those caught without up-to-date papers are subject to summary deportation, often splitting up families.

There are also more than 15,000 refugees of other nationalities present, including Iraqis, Sudanese and others.

Over 90% of refugees in Lebanon live in extreme poverty, without access to adequate food.

Many communities in Malaysia have continued to struggle through unemployment and the devastation caused by the Covid pandemic. Crossroads has sent a further two shipments to assist vulnerable and refugee communities. Following the first two shipments containing disaster relief kits, furniture, goods for education and development and medical supplies, we have now sent a large amount of clothing, footwear and toys, as well as some household goods. All this is to bring hope to recipients who find it so hard to make ends meet for a normal life, let alone for extras such as toys for the children.

Our partner organisation in Malaysia works tirelessly to distribute aid of all kinds to poor communities. They said of the goods received in the two shipments:

“They can save lives, improve health conditions, alleviate suffering, and enhance to overall well-being of the community.”

Below: The arrival of a large number of toys and items for enhancing child development in the second shipment brought great joy to many communities, where money is so short.

A school for indigenous people in a village far from nearby town experienced a major flood that caused the dormitory, where their students live, to be flooded making it impossible to use. New beds and mattresses from the shipment were delivered to the school, allowing the students to get a good night’s sleep again.

15 students from poorer communities received a computer unit each. According to one of the students’ mothers, this allowed their child to complete assignments or homework given by their teacher that required the use of the computer – something most of the parents didn’t think they could ever afford. This was a significant boost for their children’s education in today’s world.

Clothing and shoes are essential for all families, and this shipment brought plenty to choose from. Everyone could find a pair of shoes of the right size, and clothes to fit. This helps families have more money available for basic necessities.