Imagine what it would be like if your world were suddenly thrown into chaos, your home burnt to the ground and you had to flee with only the clothes on your back. You are alone and lost and have to walk for days in search of a place of safety and to escape from the chaos around you…

This is the reality that 1.8 million people have faced in Somalia over the past 20
years. What can we do about it?

The UNHCR (the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees) has launched a new initiative
of their flagship 2009 Gimme Shelter campaign. The campaign launched in December 2008 with a series of films produced by Ben Affleck, shot in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and set to the Rolling Stones’ classic song “Gimme Shelter”.

Individuals
and groups can donate money online to buy tents and other equipment. Two hundred dollars can buy a refugee tent for a family of 5. Each tent is a life-saving piece of equipment: it provides shelter from the elements and violence and can save lives. Two types are used: a lightweight structure in emergencies and a more permanent structure for protection from the cold of winter and the heat of summer. We invite you to enroll your colleagues and friends to form a group and in donate $20 each toward a tent.

Read
more about the plight of the refugees of Somalia is depicted in these ten stories.

View the latest footage from Somalia on YouTube or follow the cause on Facebook.