I am a Refugee Poem

I am a refugee

Forced to leave my home where I belong

Forced to leave the home where I grew up

Forced to leave the school where I learned

The civil war brought bombings and battles, which drove my family away

Entire cities left destroyed by the fighting

The war is not ending anytime soon

Now I must leave my country and heritage to somewhere new

Now me and my people are all leaving for nowhere

We have nowhere to stay

There is no one to help us

No other country seems to care

Escaping the war didn’t mean escaping the problems

The winter brings harsh cold nights

And the meals are a mystery

Spending my life worrying about the war doesn’t allow time for anything else

We don’t go to school and we don’t play games

I don’t get to learn about why I must leave

The time is never my own, I must always run

There are, however, people who help me

They build shelters and homes

The food is less scarce

They give me somewhere to stay

And protection from the cold

I am a refugee, forced from my home

I am a refugee, traveling forever with no place to go

I am a refugee, but I’m not alone

There are people who help me, and that gives me hope

I made my poem to describe the issues that the refugees fleeing from war face every day. When I first began my research I did not know much about any wars that America was a part of. While researching the topic I noticed that the information on the Syrian war was most interesting to me and I wanted to learn more. I found that many of the articles about the war in Syria mentioned that most of the population has been fleeing to find new homes since the war began. I found that as of 2018, 5.6 million Syrians had fled looking for a new home (“Why is there a War in Syria?”). I wrote this poem to tell others about this problem and show how much help they really need.

The war is leaving these refugees without their necessities. They have no reliable source of food or shelter. The neighboring countries cannot help at all because they don’t have enough space or resources for all of these people (Brand). During the winter the refugees have nowhere to get heat or warm clothing, and many of them are dying due to the freeze (Dineen). Along with their necessities, the children aren’t getting any education. Syrian enrollment is schools went down more than twenty five percent in 2018 (Brand). This whole generation in Syria is going without an education because they have spent their entire life running. However, the many countries and organizations like UNICEF have been doing a lot to help provide these refugees with what they need (Dineen). We should all be doing something to help these people who have been forced out of their homes to leave with nothing. The people need all the help that they can get and we have the resources to help them. We definitely should be spending more time helping.

Works Cited

Brand, Laurie A., and Marc Lynch. “How the Refugee Crisis Is Transforming the Middle East.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 30 Mar. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/03/30/how-the-refugee-crisis-is-transforming-the-middle-east/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a4ef40c6ac81.

“Refugee Children in the Middle East Are Facing a Cruel Winter.” UNICEF USA, 22 Jan. 2018, www.unicefusa.org/stories/refugee-children-middle-east-are-facing-cruel-winter/33638.

“Why Is There a War in Syria?” BBC News, BBC, 7 Sept. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35806229.