Making a Difference, 13 June 2012
© UNHCR/S.Rich
Thinking of You: Millions will be thinking of the displaced, like this boy in Pakistan, on World Refugee Day.
GENEVA, June 13 (UNHCR) – In the past 18 months, the UNHCR has faced
one of the busiest periods of its history, with crisis after crisis
keeping the agency at full stretch, but over the next week staff across
the globe will take time to commemorate World Refugee Day and the
millions they help.
The focus for UNHCR this year will be in Brazil, where High
Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres will be spending World
Refugee Day (June 20) in Rio de Janeiro at the UN Conference on
Sustainable Development. He will be attending and addressing Rio+20
after visiting refugees in Ecuador.
Two days before World Refugee Day (WRD), UNHCR will be releasing
worldwide its eagerly awaited Global Trends 2011 report, which updates
the number of people of concern to the organization, including refugees,
asylum-seekers, the stateless and internally displaced people.
UNHCR will start marking World Refugee Day by rolling out a striking
new campaign, "Dilemmas," which is a development of the award-winning
"1" campaign launched last year. "Dilemmas" depicts some of the tough
choices facing refugees, helping the public to empathize with, and
understand, their dilemma.
The new campaign is being supported in special TV spots by UNHCR
Special Envoy Angelina Jolie and other celebrities, including UNHCR
Goodwill Ambassadors Barbara Hendricks, Julien Clerc and Osvaldo Laport
as well as Chinese actress Yao Chen, author Khaled Hosseini, Colombian
rock star Juanes and Italian actress Fiorella Mannoia. UNHCR has also
developed a free smartphone app, a role playing game called "My Life as a
Refugee," to support the campaign on various digital platforms around
the world.
© UNHCR
An image from UNHCR's new "Dilemmas" campaign.
Meanwhile, as has become custom, Rome's Colosseum will once again be
illuminated in UN blue, one of many monuments around the world to be
spotlit to mark the occasion, including Sweden's national indoor arena,
the Ericsson Globe, which is the world's largest hemispherical building,
and the Pristina National Library in Kosovo.
UNHCR staff have been planning for months for WRD and have prepared a
wide range of activities, including light shows, film screenings,
lectures, panel discussions, food bazaars, fashion shows, cultural
performances, concerts and sports contests. There will also be
competitions, tree planting, speeches, panel discussions, poetry
recitals and photography exhibitions. UNHCR once again has an ambitious
social media campaign to promote the day and spread awareness about the
"Dilemmas" campaign.
The agency's partners, including governments, donors and
non-governmental organizations, also be doing their part to help, and
refugees around the world will participate while enjoying much needed
recognition.
EUROPE
The United Kingdom will again be marking a Refugee Week, with
hundreds of events planned around the country. Highlights include a
"Celebrating Sanctuary" festival starting June 17 on London's South Bank
and the screening on June 22 of the film classic, "Casablanca," in the
capital's iconic Victoria & Albert Museum, with free entrance and
black & white dress code.
The museum's tea room will be recreated as Rick's Café, where
British-born Palestinian jazz singer Reem Kelani will perform songs and
work by Sayyid Darwish. A more modest RefuTea will be held in the town
of Ipswich on June 19, with free drinks and cakes. UNHCR will also be
running a poster campaign on the London Underground system highlighting
the contributions of refugees towards the Olympic Games, which begin in
the city on July 27.
In Ireland, more than 130 libraries across the country as well as
branches of Hughes and Hughes Booksellers in and around Dublin will have
displays of refugee-related books for adults and children around World
Refugee Day. UNHCR bookmarks with recommended reads will be handed out.
In France, UNHCR is again sponsoring a World Refugee Day essay
competition run by "Le Monde" for journalism students. The winning
article, which must be on the subject of refugees, will run in the
daily's June 20 edition. Le Monde's sister publication, the monthly "Le
Monde diplomatique," has published a four-page supplement on UNHCR in
its June edition.
In the Belgian capital, Brussels, UNHCR will organize an explosive
event on June 19 in the city's Place du Luxembourg. Using projectors and
soundscape, actors and stunt experts will stage an attack on the
historic old entrance to the Brussels-Luxemburg railway station, which
will appear to crumble as people flee. The aim is to spread awareness
about the "Dilemmas" campaign and to show the burghers of Brussels the
kind of situations refugees face.
© UNHCR/S.Hopper
Time for a Party: Staff dance in UNHCR headquarters on World Refugee Day.
On the Iberian Peninsula, World Refugee Day will be taken right into
the Portuguese Parliament, with legislators helping to salute refugees
at a national level. There will be testimonies from refugees, a photo
exhibition and a concert, with free entry to the June 20 event. The
parliament building will be decorated with materials from "Dilemmas" and
other UNHCR campaigns.
A wide range of activities are planned for Hungary, including a
festival of films on migration and refugees on June 19-20 in Budapest.
Also on June 20, refugees in Budapest and Debrecen will hand out 10,000
copies of a free magazine on refugee issues, which was written by local
journalists and funded by the European Union.
In neighbouring Bulgaria, on Sunday, a multicultural event with a
concert and activities for children will take place in front of the
National Theatre in Sofia. UNHCR will have a stall alongside tents
showcasing culture and cuisine from the Middle East, North Africa and
Asia, and organizations that support refugees in Bulgaria.
In Slovakia, on June 20, refugees staying at the Emergency Transit
Centre in Hummene (while they await resettlement) will join
asylum-seekers and others of concern on a sightseeing tour of the
historical city of Košice. This will be followed by a football
tournament and a cultural event.
ASIA-PACIFIC
UNHCR's World Refugee Day activities in the Antipodes include an art
contest for children in Australia and New Zealand on the theme of "1
refugee without hope is too many." The art will be exhibited at a
breakfast on June 20 in Canberra, where guests will include refugees and
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen. Winning entries will be featured in a
2013 calendar by UNHCR.
And in Sydney, Australia for UNHCR will be hosting the annual WRD
breakfast on June 20. Funds raised will support community projects in
Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya.
UNHCR's office in Papua New Guinea will hold its main event on the
weekend before WRD, which will include an arts and crafts market, with
proceeds going to support refugee causes. Popular local artist Jeffry
Feeger will complete a life painting for auction, bamboo flute player
Pius Wasi will make a special recording with PNG and West Papuan
musicians while West Papuan refugee troupes, Rainbow and Hohola, will
perform traditional dances.
Meanwhile, on June 20, UNHCR will launch an advertising campaign
featuring photos of Malaysian celebrities calling on the public to help
refugees by donating money, volunteering their time or speaking to
others. The featured celebrities are Miss Universe Malaysia Deborah
Henry, TV hosts Daphne Iking and Aishah Sinclair and recording artists
Reshmonu and Reza Salleh.
On June 24, UNHCR will host more than 500 refugees at an event in
Kuala Lumpur themed, "Loud and Proud." The guests will fete the
accomplishments of refugees in helping their communities survive in
Malaysia.
In Afghanistan, the national post office will issue a stamp marking
the 10th anniversary of UNHCR's voluntary repatríation programme, which
has seen more than 4.6 million people return home with the agency's
help.
MIDDLE EAST
The UNHCR office in the Lebanon will be organizing sports and film
events to mark WRD this year. Running from June 25-29 at Beirut's Cinema
Sofil, the film festival will include features and documentaries from
around the world on refugee-related issues. A children-oriented World
Refugee Day Olympics will be held on June 24 at the Antoniye School in
Baabda, western Lebanon. The country's most popular restaurant chain,
Roadster Diner, will feature images from UNHCR's "Dilemmas" campaign on
its food trays.
AFRICA
In an event co-organized by UNHCR, The Soweto Gospel Choir will
perform for free on World Refugee Day at the Orlando East Community Hall
in the Johannesburg district from which the Grammy Award winners take
their name. Several other WRD events in South Africa will promote
tolerance of refugees in the country. Art exhibits, featuring work by
refugees, will be held at the Holocaust Museum in Cape Town and the
Alliance Française in Durban.
© UNHCR/S.Lubuku
UNHCR will again be helping organize the annual 10-kilometre walk in Kinshasa.
The UN refugee agency and the Walkers Club of Kinshasa will stage an
annual 10-kilometre walk through the hot streets of the capital of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo this Sunday. About 700 people are
expected to turn up for an event that attracts refugees, UNHCR staff,
diplomats, government officials, aid workers and more.
In North Africa, the UNHCR office in Tunisia and the Ministry of
Women will on June 17 co-organize a day of recreational events for
refugee children and their families in central Tunis. Three days later,
UNHCR will both celebrate World Refugee Day and inaugurate its new Tunis
office. In the Choucha camp in southern Tunisia, a special meal will be
offered to the refugees on World Refugee Day and ice-cream vans will be
parked around the camp, handing out 3,000 free ice creams in cones. On
June 24, Palestinian singer Reem al Banna, who is known for her modern
interpretations of traditional Palestinian songs and poetry, will
perform at Choucha.
AMERICAS
As always, UNHCR will be busy with WRD events in the United States
capital, Washington, DC, starting with the launch on June 18 at The
Kennedy Centre of a multimedia art exhibit about Dadaab in Kenya.
"Dadaab Stories" charts daily life for almost 500,000 Somalis in the
world's largest refugee complex. Bringing together video, photography,
poetry and music, "Dadaab Stories" is a living, curated collection of
personal stories.
On World Refugee Day itself, acclaimed Afghan-born author, Khaled
Hosseini, will introduce "No Place Called Home," written and performed
by Kim Schultz. The play tells the story of an American woman who
accidentally falls in love with an Iraqi man while interviewing
refugees. Hosseini, a UNHCR supporter and former refugee, will also
speak at a naturalization ceremony for 20 refugees next Thursday at the
US State Department.
UNHCR will also be promoting WRD in New York, holding an evening
event at the UN Secretariat Building overlooking the East River. This
gathering will also launch a photo and text exhibit on the recently
published, "The State of the World's Refugees," a flagship UNHCR
publication.
In Costa Rica, UNHCR and youth organization Chepecletas will organize a night tour – or "nocturbano" –
on June 20 in San José, highlighting the reality refugees face. As part
of this experience, the Youth Network without Borders, including
refugees, will stage a drama on violence, flight and integration. The
tour will end with a performance by a Colombian refugee band.
In the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, UNHCR will stage a concert by
acclaimed local flautist, Huascar Barradas, at the Fundación Corp Banca.
Aside from hosting a visit by the High Commissioner, Latin America's
largest refugee host nation, Ecuador, will be showing its empathy and
support for the displaced in some imaginative ways. Thousands of
citizens are being encouraged to get on their bikes at Quito's Carolina
Park to show their support "for an Ecuador that is socially committed,
inclusive and non-discriminatory." There will also be a food, music and
handicrafts fair and Guterres will join the fun.
Source : UNHCR GENEVA
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