In a small tailoring classroom in Kabul, Yasamin Nabil spends her days teaching sewing skills to mothers whose children are suffering from malnutrition. What may look like a simple tailoring lesson is, for these women, a pathway to dignity, income, and hope.

Afghanistan is facing one of the world’s most severe nutrition crises, with millions of children affected by malnutrition. Poverty, unemployment, and limited opportunities for women to earn an income have left many families struggling to provide enough food for their children. To address these challenges, INTERSOS, supported by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) through the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), launched an integrated health, nutrition, and livelihood initiative in five villages of Kabul, supporting families with malnourished children.

For many of the women attending the training, economic hardship was a daily reality. Most had no stable source of income and were caring for children suffering from malnutrition. “The first problem my students had was poverty,” Yasamin explains. “All of them had a malnourished child at home and no reliable breadwinner. They joined this program so they could learn a skill and find a way to support their families.”

The three-month tailoring course provides practical vocational training to 60 mothers across five locations in Kabul. Starting from the very basics, participants learn how to cut fabric, operate sewing machines, and produce five different types of traditional clothing. The project provides all the materials needed for learning, including sewing machines, fabric, irons, thread, and other equipment. To help the women continue earning after graduation, each participant will also receive a tailoring kit. The trainees practice by sewing clothes for themselves and their children, allowing them to build confidence while creating useful items for their families.

Yasamin has witnessed remarkable progress among her students. “When they first arrived, some did not even know how to hold a needle,” she says. “Today, they can sew complete garments from cutting the fabric to the final stitch.” Beyond technical skills, the training is helping the women regain confidence in their ability to provide for their households.

The tailoring classes were designed as a sustainable response to malnutrition and poverty. While food assistance helps families meet their immediate needs, vocational training creates opportunities for long-term income generation, enabling mothers to support their children and reduce their dependence on humanitarian aid.

As the course nears completion, the women are preparing to take their new skills home and start earning independently. For Yasamin, their success is measured not only by the clothes they produce, but by the future they are creating. Every stitch represents a step toward healthier children, stronger families, and a more hopeful tomorrow.

L'articolo Needles and Sewing Mean Food for Afghan Mothers proviene da Intersos.

The stories of Khalil, Omar and Aisha

The impact of these activities, funded by the EU, is most visible in the children who have found a safe space within the Baity Centers. In 2024, 11-year-old twins Khalil and Omar were forced to flee Sudan with their family. Their journey to Libya was harrowing; they experienced theft and insecurity before eventually settling in a camp for Sudanese refugees in Ajdabiya. The prolonged displacement took a significant toll on the boys’ emotional well-being, hindering their ability to interact with others. Upon enrolling at the INTERSOS Baity Center, the twins began attending structured PSS sessions. Over time, these protection activities helped the brothers regain their confidence and emotional stability. Khalil and Omar rebuilt positive relationships with their peers and discovered healthy ways to express themselves, with Omar finding a particular joy in drawing. Today, they look forward to attending the center every day, and their mother is proud of their improvements.

Before the war, 9-year-old Aisha enjoyed a peaceful childhood in Sudan. By the time she reached Sabha, the fear and uncertainty of displacement had left her deeply withdrawn. During her first days at the center, Aisha was easily overwhelmed, avoided eye contact, and spoke so quietly she could barely be heard. To support her, INTERSOS team introduced structured PSS activities specifically designed to help children process their emotions safely. Using drawing, emotion cards, and interactive exercises, Aisha gradually learned to recognize and communicate her feelings rather than crying when she felt overwhelmed. Through group games and role-playing, she began to build friendships and trust. The once-withdrawn child transformed into an emotionally resilient, confident girl who now actively participates in group decision-making and willingly shares with her peers.

For Khalil, Omar, and Aisha, INTERSOS Baity Centers have become much more than just a place to go during the day. They are vital protective environments where children can heal from the invisible wounds of conflict. Thanks to the financial contribution of the European Union and the collaborative efforts of the DRC, NRC, and INTERSOS consortium, these targeted protection interventions are empowering children to rebuild their lives, reconnect with their childhoods, and look toward the future with renewed hope.

L'articolo Libya: how psychosocial support protects and transforms the lives of refugee children proviene da Intersos.

L'articolo 2025 Annual Report: A Year of Reaction, Reflection, and Transformation on the Frontlines of Humanitarian Emergencies proviene da Intersos.

After spending 23 years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 57-year-old Afghan Abdullah never imagined he would have to start all over again in Afghanistan.

For Abdullah, the return was not a choice. Arrested and deported by Iranian authorities, he was forced to leave behind his wife and four children, all of whom live with disabilities caused by a genetic condition. His family managed to join him weeks later, but the challenges only grew. “I was forced to leave my wife and four disabled children behind. I had no other option”, Abdullah recalls. “My eldest son is 22 years old and cannot walk or stand on his own. I wish all my children could receive treatment, but it is simply beyond my means.”

Like thousands of other returnees, Abdullah arrived in Afghanistan with few resources and little support network. While humanitarian assistance at border crossings provides immediate relief, the real challenge begins after families reach their areas of settlement, where they must find shelter, income, healthcare, and a way to restart their lives. Recognizing this critical gap, INTERSOS activated and strengthened health facilities in districts hosting large numbers of returnees. Through these facilities, returnee families can access primary healthcare, essential medicines, nutrition services, and protection support close to where they live.

For Abdullah, this support became a lifeline. INTERSOS provided his family with one-time cash assistance, free medical consultations, and medication through a nearby health facility. “Since we returned, INTERSOS has helped us with treatment and medicines. Whenever someone in the family becomes sick, we know there is a clinic we can go to,” he says. “At least we are no longer worried about how to manage a health emergency.”

Since August 2021, Afghanistan has faced a deepening humanitarian crisis driven by economic hardship, limited access to essential services, and recurring displacement. In 2025 alone, more than 2.9 million people returned to Afghanistan from Iran and Pakistan, placing additional pressure on already overstretched communities and services. With funding from the European Union, INTERSOS has expanded access to health, nutrition, and protection services in key returnee settlement areas across western, southwestern, and southern Afghanistan.

Today, Abdullah earns a modest income driving a rented rickshaw, surrendering a significant portion of his daily earnings to the vehicle’s owner. His family of six lives in a small, fragile mud house in Nimroz Province, paying 2,000 Afghanis in monthly rent. The province is known for its powerful winds, and each storm brings a new fear. “When the wind blows hard, we worry the house will collapse on us while we sleep”, Abdullah says. After losing the life they had built over two decades in Iran, the family now faces the uncertainty of surviving in a home that offers little protection from the elements. Yet amid these challenges, the nearby INTERSOS-supported health facility provides a sense of security. Knowing that healthcare and medicines are available free of charge has lifted one burden from a family already struggling with many others. 

The project demonstrates how sustained healthcare services in returnees’ settlement areas can help families move beyond immediate survival and begin rebuilding their lives. By ensuring continued access to health, nutrition, and protection services where returnees settle, INTERSOS is helping vulnerable families face the future with greater dignity and resilience.

Abdullah still faces many challenges, but he no longer faces them alone. Knowing that healthcare is available close to home gives him peace of mind and hope for his children’s future. “We need these services to continue,” he says. “For families like mine, this clinic means everything. We are no longer constantly worried about what will happen if someone in the family gets sick.“

L'articolo Afghanistan: Abdullah’s forced return after 23 years in Iran proviene da Intersos.

For many unaccompanied minors, turning 18 means losing, almost overnight, the protection system that had been built around them. The report The Right to Adulthood describes what happens in this gap in Greece: amid bureaucracy, housing insecurity and the risk of exploitation, but also the daily work needed to build real pathways towards autonomy.

What happens when a young person turns 18? What happens when, from one day to the next, the system that had until then recognized them as a minor and protected them comes to an end? How can a young person support themselves when, now considered an adult, they no longer have access to reception facilities, legal guardianship and social support? For many unaccompanied foreign minors, the transition to adulthood does not mark the beginning of a new autonomy, but rather the opening of a protection gap. This is the reality that INTERSOS HELLAS witnesses every day in Greece, and from which the report The Right to Adulthood was born. The report was produced as part of the project “Protection for all Minors: Path to Safety and Stability”, between March 2025 and February 2026.

The report analyzes the difficulties faced by unaccompanied minors and young adults on their path towards autonomy. In Greece, despite the progress made in recent years in the protection system, many young people continue to live in extremely precarious conditions. As of 1 January 2026, 1,716 unaccompanied minors were present in the country’s reception facilities. But this figure does not capture the full scale of the phenomenon: the number of those living outside the formal reception system, often in unsafe or invisible conditions, remains uncertain.

The project reached 143 people — a number that may seem limited, but which in reality reflects intensive work, built with commitment, person by person. Among those supported, 90.9% were boys and 9.1% girls, mainly young adults between the ages of 18 and 21, in some cases up to 23 years old, with activities also targeting minors aged 16 and 17 who were approaching adulthood. Most came from Egypt and Somalia, but beneficiaries also included young people from Afghanistan, Syria, Congo, Yemen, Pakistan, Palestine, Sudan, Ethiopia, Myanmar and Türkiye.

Why are young adults more vulnerable?

In Greece, for these young people, turning 18 often means losing access to facilities for unaccompanied minors and to the guardianship system. Those who are 17 or close to 18 also risk no longer being considered a priority by reception mechanisms, while the appointment of a legal guardian may arrive late or not at all. Without a guardian, even essential activities such as enrolling in school, accessing training opportunities or regularizing one’s employment status become more complex.

Housing is one of the first emergencies. In the Attica region, many young people live in insecure housing conditions, share overcrowded accommodation with compatriots or risk ending up on the street. Work is another central issue. The report highlights that many young people are already involved in informal, irregular and often dangerous forms of work, especially in the construction sector. This is not simply a matter of unemployment, but rather a situation in which work exists, yet is precarious, undeclared and sometimes exploitative. Added to this is the lack of documents. Difficulties in obtaining a tax identification number, a social security number, a bank account or a regular contract fuel a vicious cycle: documents are needed in order to work legally, but obtaining some documents often requires proof of already having a job.

In this context, the risks of exploitation increase. Some young people are approached by people who promise to “sort out their documents” in exchange for money or work. Others accept harsh conditions, low wages or unpaid work because they see no alternatives. Limited knowledge of the Greek language and of their own rights makes everything even more difficult.

INTERSOS’ response

The work of INTERSOS HELLAS starts from the most urgent and concrete needs: understanding each young person’s situation, reconstructing their journey, identifying risks and accompanying them step by step through the services they need. This means helping them navigate public offices, documents, medical appointments, housing searches and legal pathways, but also preparing them to enter the labour market more safely: from writing a CV to knowing their rights, and connecting them with training and employment opportunities. Alongside this, Greek language courses and workshops on everyday life skills become essential tools for overcoming isolation and building autonomy.

In the first year of activities, 547 individual support sessions were carried out, 85 people took part in Greek language courses and 78 attended workshops. Among them, fifteen beneficiaries found a housing solution and four managed to access regular employment.

These figures speak of concrete impact, but also of a much broader need. As the report emphasizes, targeted, flexible and small-scale interventions can produce significant and measurable results in the lives of the young people supported. But the problem remains structural and, too often, invisible. It concerns those who arrived in Europe imagining a safer future, only to find themselves dealing with hard and unstable work, procedures that are difficult to understand, and responsibilities that are too heavy for their age. Making this transition visible is the first step towards building more adequate and continuous responses.

L'articolo The Right to Adulthood: The Fragile Transition of Unaccompanied Minors Towards Autonomy proviene da Intersos.

They are not yet eighteen years old; often, they are much younger. In most cases, they do not go to school but spend their days in fields, on construction sites, in mechanic workshops, markets, and car washes. Others collect scrap metal or do domestic work. Many work between eight and twelve hours a day, often six days a week, for very low pay. This is the daily reality for countless children in Lebanon, where, after years of economic crisis, political instability, and reduced humanitarian assistance, child labour has become an extreme survival strategy for many families.

On the occasion of World Day Against Child Labour, we want to draw attention to this violation, which deprives millions of children of the right to grow, learn, play, and be protected. In Lebanon, this reality has become increasingly visible and urgent. What INTERSOS observes on the ground is not the consequence of cultural norms, but of growing pressure on families, worsened by war and displacement

Boys account for 60% of the cases identified by INTERSOS and are more often involved in physically demanding and dangerous work. Girls account for 40% of cases, but this figure risks underestimating the true scale of the problem: many forms of work performed by girls remain hidden because they take place inside homes, through domestic work, caregiving, or other informal activities that often remain invisible..

Poverty, displacement and lack of alternatives

Since 2019, Lebanon has been experiencing a deep economic crisis, which has drastically reduced purchasing power and increased the cost of living. Unemployment has also risen,many families struggle to cover even their most basic needs. This situation has been compounded by reduced humanitarian aid and legal barriers that limit adults’ access to decent work, particularly for many refugees. When income, savings, and protection networks are lacking, children’s work becomes, for some families, one of the few ways to pay rent, buy food and medicine, or cover the costs of going to school. In many cases, children often end up becoming the main source of income for the household.

In the 2025–2026 period alone, INTERSOS has supported more than 1,000 children affected by child labour in Lebanon. This number reflects a phenomenon that, however, cannot be understood through poverty alone: war and displacement have had a direct impact. Since the end of 2024, and even more severely since March 2026, the escalation of hostilities in Lebanon by Israel has caused new massive and unprecedented displacement, destroyed or disrupted already fragile livelihoods, affected agricultural and social essential services, and forced many families to leave their homes for the second or third time. According to UNICEF, more than 1.2 million people have been displaced, including over 390,000 children. Tens of thousands of people have sought refuge in collective shelters, many of which have been set up inside public schools. This marks the seventh consecutive year of major disruptions to education for children in Lebanon, who have endured the effects of multiple overlapping crises for decades. This situation increases the risk that they will enter the labour market instead of returning to the classroom. 

The consequences and INTERSOS’ response

The loss of education is one of the most serious and long-lasting consequences. In a context where daily survival becomes the priority, for many families the choice is not between school and work, but between sending a child to work or being unable to meet essential needs — a choice no parent should ever be forced to make. The consequences go far beyond lost education. It exposes children to accidents, dangerous environments, exploitation, violence. They carry responsibilities that no child should bear. Many experience stress, exhaustion, anxiety, fear, and loss of hope. For girls, leaving school also increases the risk of early marriage and further forms of abuse. Behind every number, therefore, there is a child who is being deprived not only of the right to learn, but also of the chance to grow up safely, without having to take on responsibilities that belong to adults.

INTERSOS’ experience shows that awareness-raising alone is not enough. Many families know the risks of child labour, but they do not have real alternatives. This is why INTERSOS works with both children and families: it supports the most vulnerable cases through individual pathways, promotes return to and retention in school, provides psychosocial support to children and parents, and facilitates access to services. Whenever possible, it also provides economic assistance, helping to cover school-related expenses.

Preventing child labour should be a shared responsibility. It means supporting families over the long term by ensuring access to education, strengthening protection systems, and creating decent income opportunities for adults. Children can leave work only when their families are no longer forced to choose between survival and their children’s future.

No child should have to sacrifice their childhood to help their family survive. Protecting children from labour means defending  every child’s right to learn, to play, to feel safe, and to build a future of their own.

L'articolo Child Labour in Lebanon: Childhood Denied by Poverty and Conflict proviene da Intersos.

L'articolo Ukraine: Our colleague Volodymyr has lost his life after being hit in a drone attack proviene da Intersos.

In armed conflicts, landmines and explosive devices do not kill only during combat. They often continue to do so even afterward, when they remain hidden underground, amid rubble, in fields, or along roads. Their presence makes dangerous even the simplest acts of daily life, such as going to school or tilling the land, turning the return to normalcy into a slow and risky process.

It was precisely in response to this critical need that INTERSOS established the Mine Action Unit (MAU) in 1996, a unit specialized in mine clearance. It first deployed in Bosnia, just a few months after the end of the war that had devastated the country . at the time, it was the most severe conflict fought in Europe since World War II. About half the population had been forced to flee during the conflict, and in 1996, refugees and displaced people began slowly returning to their areas of origin. However, INTERSOS teams on the ground soon realized that landmine contamination was one of the main obstacles to the population’s return and the resumption of the country’s socioeconomic life. The INTERSOS MAU was thus established to address the need to ensure the safe return of people to the affected areas.

Over the next ten years, INTERSOS carried out operations in many other countries, becoming a major international playere, obtaining accreditation from the National Mine Action Centers (MACs), and operating in accordance with the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS).

Following its experience in the Balkans, INTERSOS arrived in Angola, where the war was still ongoing and would not end until 2002. Here, the organization’s work focused particularly on victim assistance, one of the five international pillars of mine action alongside humanitarian demining, risk education, advocacy, and stockpile destruction – that is the elimination of stockpiles of anti-personnel mines to prevent their reuse.

In particular, in the city of Menongue, the capital of Cuando Cubango Province, INTERSOS staff noticed that, while some organizations were engaged in mine clearance activities, survivors of mine-related accidents had no access to medical rehabilitation services. To receive treatment, they would have had to travel outside the city—an option that was effectively impossible since the area was completely surrounded by minefields. This led to the creation of the Menongue Orthopedic Center. The center produces prosthetics and assistive devices made of polypropylene, an affordable, durable material that is easily repairable with local tools, making it suitable for the harsh conditions of southern Angola.

From 1999 to 2007, INTERSOS’s Mine Action Unit (MAU) operated in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq, integrating demining efforts with humanitarian protection work. Subsequently, with the conclusion of the MAU’s large-scale operations, mine action became an integral component of INTERSOS’s humanitarian interventions.

Mine Action in Ukraine

With the outbreak of the conflict in 2022, Ukraine has been hit by widespread contamination from landmines and explosive ordnance, making it one of the most heavily mined countries in the world today, with 22% of its territory potentially contaminated. As of 2024, mine action returns to the forefront of INTERSOS’s work: thanks to the support of Italian Cooperation (AICS) and collaboration with Ukrainian and international partners, a project has been launched aimed at reducing the risk of accidents caused by unexploded ordnance.

In Ukraine, the MAU is active in the regions of Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Dnipro, among the areas most affected by the conflict and contamination from explosive ordnance. Mine Action activities in the field begin with the identification of contaminated zones. Through technical and non-technical surveys, the teams document areas at risk: the former involve the use of advanced metal detectors and geolocation technologies to precisely delineate contaminated zones; the latter, on the other hand, rely on the involvement of local communities and information gathered directly from those living in those territories.

Once identified, high-risk areas are mapped and marked with standard, clear, and easily recognizable signage. This step is essential to ensure that the population knows which areas to avoid and how to move around safely, especially those most at risk, such as farmers, children, internally displaced persons, and people with disabilities. For this reason, INTERSOS also conducts awareness-raising activities, both in person and online, to help communities recognize warning signs and adopt safe behaviors.

INTERSOS’s Mine Action activities, today as they were thirty years ago, remain essential for protecting people’s lives and restoring safety to war-torn territories. At the core lies a simple and concrete goal: to enable communities to return to living in their territories without fear.

L'articolo From Bosnia to Ukraine: Thirty Years of Mine Action proviene da Intersos.

One of our colleagues sustained minor injuries, whilst the other suffered serious injuries to his leg and back and is currently in hospital in a critical condition. Our thoughts are with their families at this time of great anxiety.

This tragic event compels us to reiterate with the utmost firmness an essential principle that cannot be ignored: civilians and civilian infrastructure are not a target. 

We call for unconditional respect for international humanitarian law. Protecting civilians is an absolute human duty.

L'articolo Ukraine: Two INTERSOS aid workers injured in a drone attack proviene da Intersos.

L'articolo Hanane, 17 years old, and a child she never chose to have proviene da Intersos.