The strength of a mother’s love: Extraordinary stories of refugee women and girls caring for others

Celebrating the devotion and perseverance of refugee mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers and loved ones

UNHCR Canada
6 min readMay 4, 2020
Venezuelan refugee Vanis and her one-month old baby Luanna in their new home in Brasilia. © UNHCR/ Alan Azevedo

Eighty per cent of all refugees are women or children, and 61 per cent of refugee homes are headed by females. Behind these statistics are millions of refugee women and girls who demonstrate incredible strength and resilience. Being a mother is no easy feat, and refugee mothers face extraordinary circumstances as they flee war, conflict and persecution while caring for loved ones.

We are inspired by the refugee women who look after their children, families and communities despite the hardships and struggles they face. Today, we’d like to celebrate motherhood by featuring five stories about the bravery selflessness and compassion of refugee women .

“I never lost hope:” Eritrean mother reunites with her children after eight years apart

In 2010, Semira was forced to flee persecution in Eritrea. Rather than drag her two young sons — eight-year-old Kedija and and four-year-old Yonas — into the unknown, she made the difficult decision to leave them with their grandparents while she sought safe refuge. But after five years of relative stability, Kedija and Yonas were also forced to flee across the border into Ethiopia with their uncle. Semira lost contact with them, plunging her into years of pain and uncertainty.

In 2017, Kedija, Yonas, and their uncle were abducted by smugglers, who found out that the children’s mother had been resettled in Switzerland. They demanded a ransom in order to free them. Unable to meet their financial demands, Semira called for help from International Social Service, a Swiss-based NGO. With Semira’s perseverance and the help of UNHCR —whose staff and partners scoured every detention centre in the area looking for them — the children were located and taken to Switzerland to be with their mother.

Semira’s family’s harrowing story reflects the determination of so many mothers around the world, as they struggle and fight to keep their families together in the face of adversity.

“Despite being separated for more than eight years, I never lost hope of being reunited with my kids again,” said Semira, gripping them tightly as they reunited in a Swiss airport.

Becoming an orphan and a mother at the age of 18

Rabiaa Khatun and her nieces, Umme Salma, 8, and Noor Kalima, 4, stand inside a shelter at a transit camp near Kutupalong camp in Bangladesh. © UNHCR/Andrew McConnell

Motherhood comes in many different forms. For Rabiaa, it came in the form of finding her two nieces in the midst of chaos as she searched for her own family.

When her family members were killed during an outbreak of violence in Myanmar’s Buthidaung township, 18-year-old Rabiaa became both an orphan and a mother. Setting aside the grief of losing her family to the chaos, she set off with her two nieces, Umme and Noor, on a tough journey to safety.

For 25 days, Rabiaa and her nieces made a gruelling journey on foot to reach a UNHCR transit centre in Bangladesh. From there they were able to transfer to Kutupalong camp far from the conflict that took their families. With the immediate danger behind them, Rabiaa began to look forward at her new life as a mother.

For Rohingya refugees, Rabiaa’s story is not uncommon. With more than 5,000 households headed by people under the age of 18, motherhood is inherited by many young Rohingya refugees as a result of conflict.

“I am now playing the role of a mother,” said Rabiaa. “I will take care of [my nieces] for the rest of my life, even if it means that I don’t get married. I want to see them well-educated.”

The power of a mother’s love

Syrian refugee Fatima is studying civil engineering at Gaziantep University. © UNHCR/Ali Unal

In May of 2014, a bomb struck a small café in Aleppo, Syria. At the time of the devastating incident, a young high school student named Fatima was writing a physics exam. She was completely unaware that the café was her family’s, and that her mother, Aisha, and her brother were both severely injured in the attack. She would not find out until much later.

Because of her devotion to her daughter’s education, Aisha would not allow anyone to tell Fatima of the bombing and the condition that she was in. She wanted to make sure that Fatima was able to focus fully on her exams and not be distracted by what was happening. Tragically, Aisha died the next day, but only after hearing the news that Fatima scored 95 per cent on her physics exam.

Aisha’s devotion to her daughter’s success and education was not lost to Fatima. In the years following her death, Fatima finished high school, fled to Turkey, learned fluent English and Turkish, and began studying civil engineering at Gaziantep University. Through all of this, her academic motivation has been fuelled by the sacrifice her mother made to make sure she was able to succeed academically and continue her legacy of excellence.

“I believe suffering brings creation,” Fatima said. “This could have its positive side.”

A Yazidi mother reunites with her 13-year-old son in Winnipeg

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him. I’m very excited but I’m very nervous.” These are the words of Nofa, a Yazidi refugee from Iraq, as she waits in a Winnipeg airport to see her son Emad for the first time in three years.

In 2014, Emad and his family were among 6,000 Yazidis abducted by extremists in Iraq. In 2016, Nofa and her other children were able to escape captivity and were relocated to Winnipeg, with the help of UNHCR. Unfortunately, Emad wasn’t so lucky. After a year of captivity, Emad was finally able to escape and contact his mother, who is now living in Canada.

“When Emad first talked to his mother they were both very happy,” Emad’s uncle Hadi said. “For his mom, she was just very happy. It was like Emad was reborn.”

Emad and his mother reunited in Winnipeg in 2017, where Nofa is building a new home for her family.

“I want him to be healthy, I want him to be happy and I want him to be able to go wherever he wants to freely.”

A “Queen” mother for her community

South Sudanese refugee Queen has a heart of motherhood that has given 19 refugee children a new home and a new family. © UNHCR/Ali Unal

Queen is a farmer and South Sudanese refugee who fled to Uganda in the early ’90s when she was just a young child. Finding refuge in the country, Queen was able to establish a life in Uganda as a refugee farmer growing anything from maize to peanuts. These days, she specializes in growing and selling rice, a specialty that has provided for her and her children — all 22 of them.

Queen did not always have 22 children. First, she had three biological children of her own. Then, she began taking in refugee children who were orphaned or separated from their families when conflict escalated in her home country. Having once been in their shoes, she took it upon herself to feed them, send them to school, and be the mother that they all needed. In doing so, Queen’s family grew from a family of four to a family of 23.

“God has seen I have that heart of motherhood,” says Queen, “That could be the reason why he has sent all these children to me.”

Do you want to help support refugee mothers this UNMother’s Day? Visit UNHCR Canada’s Shop page to find a different gift idea — something to make your mom proud. Donate to a refugee mother in your mom’s name. Shop now.

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UNHCR Canada

The UN Refugee Agency in Canada is dedicated to providing life-saving support to refugees, displaced and stateless people.