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Refugees
Refugees from Myanmar pose as they wait to perform during celebrations to mark "World Refugee Day" in New Delhi June 20, 2007. (REUTERS/Tanushree Punwani (INDIA)
Today, some 40 million people worldwide are uprooted by violence and persecution. They do not just flee persecution and war, but also injustice, exclusion, environmental pressures, competition for scarce resources and the miseries caused by dysfunctional states. The task facing the international community and volunteers, is to understand this new environment and to find ways to unlock the potential of refugees who have much to offer if they are given the opportunity to regain control over their lives.

We are highlighting how volunteers are assisting refugees integrate in their adopted countries, find jobs and become volunteers themselves.


Related articles
15 August 2007
 Volunteers battle to recover mudslide victims 
Joel Lubale, a local resident talking about the rescue efforts at the site of the mudslides. (Photo: Edward Kale/IRIN)
Nairobi, Kenya: Kenya's capacity to deal with disasters has been in the spotlight again after volunteers fought to locate people buried alive when mudslides smashed into their homes during heavy rainfall in the country’s western region.  Read article
From: IRIN News
More about: Kenya  Environment
20 June 2007
 Help refugees in transition by Susan Watson
Mr Huang Guohua escaped to NZ with his daughter Kaixin in 2006. Him and his wife were tortured for several years in labour camps before Chinese authorities beat to death his three-month-pregnant wife. Both were illegally detained for practicing Falun Gong in China. (Epoch Times, June 2007)
Auckland, New Zealand: RMS Refugee Resettlement encourages people to help refugees settle in New Zealand.   Read article
More about: New Zealand
06 March 2007
 Volunteer helps children regain childhood through sports 
Claude Marshall, volunteer consultant on refugee sport (UNHCR, 2007)
Claude Marshall has been a full-time volunteer consultant at UNHCR for the past 14 years, helping tens of thousands of refugees around the world. Much of his work since then has focused on raising public awareness and private sector support for sport and education programmes for refugee children. Marshall is preparing to hand over to a full-time successor, thus ensuring that the programmes he started will continue to benefit refugee children. He sat down with UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond to discuss his volunteer work and the future of the programme he began.   Read article
From: UNHCR News Stories
More about: Children  Culture & sports  Senior volunteers
29 January 2007
 Voluntary organizations for refugees resist pressure to operate as 'shadow state' agencies 
New research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, highlights the tensions that voluntary organisations face between working to support refuges arriving in Britain and the rules surrounding government funding for their work.  Read article
From: HULIQ
More about: United Kingdom
20 December 2006
 UN Volunteers bring experience to Kosovo by Hanna Snarberg, UNV volunteer and Public Information Officer for UNMIK
Creating jobs: UNV Volunteer Sherwin Das (left) from the United States helped Kosovars to find employment to rebuild their communities (February 2000). (Photo by Jean Baptiste Avril/UN Volunteers)
Pristina, Serbia: UN Volunteers participation in UNMIK dates back to the beginning of the mission in June 1999 when some 200 UN Volunteers supported the mission in humanitarian work, organizing food deliveries, providing medical care and setting up temporary shelter for thousands of refugees returning to Kosovo.   Read article
More about: Kosovo  Governance  Peacekeeping

 

Related links
Involving volunteers from diverse backgrounds 
Published by Volunteering Australia, this guide is for volunteer managers to help build knowledge about involving people from diverse backgrounds in volunteering program, and help improve volunteering policies and practices.  Visit site
A part of society: Refugees and asylum seekers volunteering in the UK 
The latest report from the Volunteering and Asylum Project is based on case studies of ten organisations across the UK that are all outside the refugee sector, and that are all successfully involving refugees and asylum seekers as volunteers. The report is for policy makers, volunteer managers and others wanting to encourage and develop diversity in volunteering.  Visit site
RMS Refugee Resettlement 
Each year, the New Zealand government selects 750 refugees for resettlement. The non-profit organization RMS Refugee Resettlement is the agency which helps them to resettle in their new communities. It operates a unique programme which trains volunteers to work alongside refugees as they begin to settle into their new communities.  Visit site

Related blog entries
16 December 2005, 13:55
Children refugees help volunteers come together in Ukraine 
A party was organized for children refugees in Kyiv integration centre for refugees on 10 December, with the joint efforts of the volunteers of UNHCR and International Relief and Friendship Foundation in affiliation with Service For Peace and students of Kyiv universities. The UN Volunteers programme also supported this initiative.  Read entry
From: IVD 2005 Blog
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