An Interactive Look at the Global Refugee Crisis, Region by Region

Kurdish women and children from Syria at a Turkish military checkpoint near Kobani, a Syrian town badly damaged by the war last year. Bryan Denton for The New York Times

The New York Times has published an interactive look at hot spots in what the United Nations says has become the worst migration crisis since World War II.

THE BALKANS - Tens of thousands of migrants and refugees are working their way north through the Balkans. Masses of migrants and refugees, many from Syria, Afghanistan and Kosovo, have been overwhelming border authorities in several Balkan countries as they try to reach Western Europe. The migrants travel in groups of just a few to dozens, moving north by bus, train, taxi or van. Serbian news media reported that some 70 buses of migrants entered the capital, Belgrade. Migrants in Macedonia told reporters that they were especially eager to move after Hungary said it planned to complete a fence along its 109-mile border with Serbia.

THE MIDDLE EAST - Syria’s neighbors have been making it harder for migrants to cross into their territories. Years of violence in Iraq and Syria have stretched the capacities of neighboring countries to accommodate the displaced. In Jordan, unemployment has almost doubled since 2011 in areas with high concentrations of refugees, according to a recent International Labor Organization study. Lebanon began to require visas from Syrians in January. Refugees now make up about 20 percent of Lebanon’s population. In March, Turkey announced it would close the two remaining border gates with Syria.

SOUTHEAST ASIA - Thousands of Bangladeshis and Rohingya, an ethnic minority from Myanmar, have fled from poverty and persecution. Indonesia and Malaysia, countries that in the past have quietly taken in many refugees from Bangladesh and Myanmar, first reacted to the new rise in migrants by vowing to send back smugglers’ boats. Facing public pressure, they reversed their stance in mid-May, saying they would provide shelter to migrants still at sea. An absence of landings and a paucity of sightings suggest that the flow has subsided.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA - The European Union wants to stop smugglers near the African coast. European governments are divided over the fates of those who reach shore. In May, European leaders said they would form a naval force based in Italy to combat people-smuggling. The European Commission also appealed to the bloc’s member states to accept quotas of migrants to relieve the burden on southern states, like Italy and Greece, which are the main landing points. Poverty and war in places like Libya, South Sudan, Eritrea and Nigeria are driving migrants to make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea.

EASTERN EUROPE - Fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists has severely damaged Ukraine’s industrial belt. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have fled to Russia. But European Union countries, like Poland, Germany and Italy, which are among the top destinations for asylum seekers, have rejected most applications from Ukrainians. Less than a third of the $316 million needed in 2015 for the United Nations’ humanitarian response has been raised so far. The conflict was particularly damaging to Ukraine’s economy, which is expected to shrink 9 percent by the end of the year.

Excerpts, read full article here.

Sources: Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, International Organization for Migration

Additional work by Sarah Almukhtar, Wilson Andrews, Joe Burgess, K.K. Rebecca Lai, David Furst, Alison Smale and Derek Watkins.

Lalela Project Tackles Extreme Child Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa Through Arts & Music

Lalela Project provides arts education to youth affected by extreme poverty, sparking creative thinking and awakening the entrepreneurial spirit. Our role in arts education is not to churn out artists, it is to help blaze the trail in whole brain thinking that has proven a path to innovation and new job creation. We start early [age 6] in developing imagination in safe spaces that invites the freedom to thinking differently and dream big. We spend years nurturing the life-skills and the action steps that turn imagination into creation.

"Lalela Project has helped me dream up a new person in me." Anthony, age 15

What We Do
In the Western Cape, South Africa, Lalela Project year-round, community-based arts education and leadership workshops to children grades one through twelve in a safe space during the vulnerable after-school hours and holiday periods. We use the power of the arts to help students navigate a clear path that is often cluttered with the hazards of extreme poverty. Our primary communities are Masiphumelele, Imizamo Yethu, Hangberg, Manenburg and Nyanga.

"I want to be a job maker, not a job taker." Melikhaya, age 16

As our learners move toward the last years of high school, we help them find stable career paths in a country with vertiginous unemployment levels. With that in mind, we partner with organizations that expose our students to cultural experiences, and with corporations that provide them with internship opportunities. Once our learners matriculate, the experiences and skills acquired during their internships often allow them to achieve job placements, as well as scholarships for college and professional training. Thus, through life skills training and the power of the arts, we hope to accompany our learners from kindergarten until they enter the job market as capable and creative adults.

"It is just wonderful to have Lalela Project at the school. You can see the attitude change. There is now a sense of, ‘I want to be at school. I want to learn. I want to progress!'" Mr. Julius, Principal of Hout Bay High School in Western Cape.

In July 2013, Lalela Project partnered with the David Rattray Foundation to bring our arts curriculum to children in rural Kwazulu Natal. And in October 2012, Lalela Project completed construction of its I AM Peace Center for the Arts on the campus of Hope North, a living and learning community center for former child soldiers, orphans, and other vulnerable children in Northern Uganda.

Through our partnership with Iziko South African National Gallery's Education and Public Programmes, Lalela Project reaches many more students through our signature curriculum. Our guided lessons designed around the temporal exhibits at the museum are currently distributed to schools and centres in other disadvantaged communities.

Through our arts curriculum and its critical messaging component, we ignite imagination and teach children how to map and manifest their dreams and goals, launching a possibility of a different future for themselves and their communities. Research has shown that educational arts is closely linked to academic achievement, social and emotional development and civic engagement. We engage and empower youth in creative thinking and solutions. We believe that innovative and creative young people will contribute to social and economic development.

To learn more, visit www.lalelaproject.org

Contact info@lalelaproject.org