DOING NOTHING IS DOING HARM

I'm taking a time out from my usual blogging post for my blog group, BLOGGERS WANTED TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE, to turn our attention to the plight of refugees worldwide with this brief situationer. Everytime armed conflicts escalates anywhere in the globe so does the refugees population. We also witnessed a significant rise of various humanitarian groups/persons-celebrities along with UNHR helping to find a solution to the this rising refugees pop. and internally displaced persons (IDPs).
Refugee definitions are defined in 1951 Convention and 1969 OAU Convention, wherein 140 countries incorporated their refugee in their national legislation and keeping track of refugees easier. Besides this, there here has always been a conflict of definition of a refugee between UNHR, NGO's and the host country. In line with this, and for a refugee to be adequately protected and documented, a refugee must be registered. With this UNHR often supports countries in register and documenting refugees and categorized them into 7 groups and sub groups:

Refugees - Refugees include individuals recognized under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees; its 1967 Protocol; the 1969 OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, except some 4.6 million Palestinian refugees residing in areas of operation of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Asylum-seekers - Asylum-seekers are persons who have applied for asylum or refugee status, but who have not yet received a final decision on their application.

Returned Refugees - The population category of Returned refugees refers to refugees who have returned to their country of origin

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) - are people or groups of individuals who have been forced to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of, or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural- or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an international border.

Returned IDPs - Returned IDPs refers to internally displaced persons who have returned to their place of origin or habitual residence. In returnee situations, UNHCR seeks to reintegrate former IDPs as soon as possible by targeting both returnees as well as receiving communities.

Stateless persons - Stateless persons are individuals not considered as nationals by any State under relevant national laws. UNHCR statistics on statelessness also include people with undetermined nationality.

Other groups or persons of concern - Other groups or persons of concern refers to individuals who do not necessarily fall directly into any of the groups above but to whom UNHCR has extended its protection and/or assistance services, based on humanitarian or other special grounds. Until 2003, this category also included stateless persons.
Georgian women refugees sit on a straw-laden farm transporter as they rest before continuing their flight from Russian troops.

Basing on UNHR's 2007 Global Trends, refugees and IDPs falling under UNHCR’s responsibility was estimated at 25.1 million, available information suggests that a total of 67 million people had been forcibly displaced at the end of 2007. This includes 16 million refugees, of whom 11.4 million fall under UNHCR’s mandate and some 4.6 million Palestinian refugees under the responsibility of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The number of IDPs is estimated at 51 million worldwide; some 26 million were displaced as a result of armed conflict and another 25 million were displaced by natural disasters. In addition, while often not considered as being displaced per se, it is estimated that there are some 12 million stateless people worldwide.

Against this global refugee backdrop, how are we Bloggers placed. Keeping in mind, that DOING NOTHING IS DOING HARM. Besides individual financial contributions wherein your $80 can provide 20 wool blankets to protect refugees from the cold, and your $100 can already provide a survival kit to a refugee family, with essentials such as blankets, cooking and heating stove, we can also use our individual talents, although each of us bloggers, originating from different countries and religions with diverse political beliefs will unite in one call - Bloggers Unite !!!