Summer Herout

Summer Herout '20

Project Title:  Human Dignity and the Refugee Crisis: How Children are Forced to Grow Up.

Summary:  Refugee children are growing up in refugee camps as countries are increasingly preventing refugees from gaining permanent asylum. As a result of this, refugee children are developing in spaces where they do not have access to services and care that are critical for proper development. This paper argues that in order to make refugee camps more appropriate for children, NGOs must use Martha Nussbaum’s Central Capabilities approach when assessing the needs of a refugee population in order to provide services that allow children to realize their capabilities and ultimately live a life worthy of human dignity. Two NGOs, Save the Children and Jussor, are compared in order to highlight how their current programs relate to Nussbaum’s capabilities approach and to show the importance of NGOs specializing the aid they provide, rather than working to fulfill all of the capabilities on their own.