Welcoming the Stranger Starts Long Before Someone Reaches our Shores

When Maya* fled Syria with her children, she arrived in Jordan carrying more than a few belongings. She carried uncertainty. Fear. And the overwhelming responsibility of trying to rebuild a life from nothing.

Like many refugees, Maya wanted what every parent wants: safety, stability, and hope for her children’s future. But starting again in a new country with limited opportunities made that feel almost impossible.

Then something changed.

Through the FORSA project, supported by Act for Peace and local partners, Maya joined vocational training in food preparation and productive kitchens. She gained practical skills, confidence, and eventually a small start-up grant to launch her own home-based catering business.

Slowly, life began to shift.

Her income increased. She was able to repay debts that had weighed heavily on her family. For the first time in years, she could begin saving and planning for the future again.

Today, Maya is one of the most successful participants in the program.

“The FORSA program completely changed my life and helped me reach where I am today,” she says.

Stories like Maya’s remind us that refugees are not defined by what they have lost.

They are people with skills, resilience, leadership, and dreams for the future—people rebuilding their lives with dignity when given the opportunity and support to do so.

This Refugee Week, Act for Peace is inviting Australians and churches to look beyond the headlines and see both the realities and possibilities facing displaced communities around the world.

Because displacement does not begin at a border. Often, it begins much earlier.

In Indonesia, communities are facing repeated flooding driven by climate change. Families lose homes, livelihoods, and stability overnight. For many, the risk of future displacement grows with every disaster season.

But through Act for Peace’s CLEAR program, local communities are preparing before disaster strikes. Communities are developing evacuation plans, strengthening livelihoods, and learning how to respond together in times of crisis.

It is preventative work—but deeply human work too.

It means families are more likely to remain safe in the places they call home. Children can continue attending school. Parents can continue earning an income. Communities can recover faster and remain connected to one another.

In Zimbabwe, communities rebuilding after Cyclone Idai are restoring access to clean water, strengthening local leadership, and rebuilding livelihoods after devastating loss.

Across these programs, the focus remains the same: not dependency, but partnership. Not short-term charity, but long-term resilience. And that matters because behind every statistic is a person.

Right now, more than 123 million people around the world have been forced from their homes by conflict, disaster, and climate change. But Refugee Week reminds us that people who have experienced displacement are not strangers to fear, hope, grief, or courage.

They are our global neighbours.

For generations, churches across Australia have responded through prayer, hospitality, advocacy, and practical support. Through Act for Peace, that legacy continues today alongside trusted local partners supporting refugees and displaced communities to:

• find safety
• rebuild livelihoods
• strengthen resilience
• restore dignity and belonging

Refugee Week is about pausing to listen to stories like Maya’s and recognise that transformation is possible when communities stand alongside one another with compassion and consistency.

And perhaps most importantly, it is a reminder that welcoming the stranger begins long before someone reaches our shores.

It begins whenever we choose not to look away.

*Maya’s name has been changed for safety reasons

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