In the Wizard of Oz, all Dorothy has to do is click the heels of her magic, red shoes and repeat: “there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home”.
Just like that, Glinda the Good Witch’s simple magic spell transports Dorothy back to the safe walls of her home in Kansas. If only it was that simple.
Today, hundreds of thousands of children around the world are without a home. Many of them have fled violence in their country and may never have the chance to return. Their lives have been put at risk in their own country and they are not being protected by their own state.
In countries like Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan lives have been shaped by violence, fear and displacement. Those who stay risk starving to death, disease or being recruited into armed forces and groups.
The need for better policy on children and displacement, globally, has never been greater with 50 million children around the world displaced.
For these children, there are no magical red shoes that can take them back to the safety and familiarity that was once their home. A place where they were able to just be children.
Here are the faces of those children: