Each year, June 20 marks World Refugee Day, a day that honors the plight of millions of refugees and internally displaced people around the globe. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, noted that at the end of 2014, more than 50 million people had been forced from their homes worldwide. Almost 80 percent of those displaced are women and children.

Established in 2001, World Refugee Day is coordinated by UNHRC and focuses on honoring the courage, strength and determination of men, women and children forced to flee their homes under threat of persecution, conflict and violence. Each year, the day focuses on a particular theme that highlights specific circumstances faced by refugees. This year’s theme, “Get to know a refugee – Ordinary people living through extraordinary times,” aims to bring the public closer to the human side of the refugee story.

“All around the world we are seeing families fleeing violence,” said High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres in a recent statement about World Refugee Day. “The numbers are massive – but we must not forget that these are mothers and fathers, daughters and sons. People who led ordinary lives before war forced them to flee. On this World Refugee Day, everyone should remember the things that connect all of us – our common humanity.”

To mark World Refugee Day 2015, Salesian Missions is proud to highlight programs around the globe that provide life-changing education and support for refugees and internally displaced people in need that were developed by Salesian Missions and funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. Salesian Missions, headquartered in New Rochelle, NY, is the U.S. Development Arm of the international Salesians of Don Bosco.

COLOMBIAN REFUGEES

In recent years, more than 450,000 people have fled the violence of Colombia to neighboring Ecuador, Venezuela, Panama and Costa Rica. Salesian Missions’ New Beginnings initiative, which started in 2011, has provided more than 1,000 Colombian refugees in these four countries vocational and human development training as well as job placement services.

Many of the Colombian refugees began the program with no marketable skills. Without the prospect of a job, it was hard for them to create stability for their families and build new lives. The New Beginnings program grants each refugee 260 hours of technical training as well as 40 hours of human development workshops. The training programs, coupled with the job placement services, allowed these victims of violence and chaos to start over and build a stable, hopeful future for themselves, their families and their new communities.

SRI LANKAN REFUGEES IN INDIA

For the fifth year, Salesian Missions has received funding from the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration to conduct its New Beginnings program for Sri Lankan Refugees in Tamil Nadu, India. To date, close to 2,500 refugees have received vocational training scholarships through the program. Since 1983, ethnic violence in Sri Lanka has forced tens of thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils from their homeland in search of safety and a new life in Tamil Nadu, India. According to UNHCR, there are close to 140,000 Sri Lankan refugees in 65 countries, with almost 70,000 in refugee camps in Tamil Nadu.

Refugees face many challenges as they begin to make a new life in their host countries. Sri Lankan Tamils are unique in that their host population in Tamil Nadu is also ethnically Tamil. While Sri Lankan refugees share a common language and customs with their host community, they still struggle to gain marketable skills and find livable wage employment.

Since 2010, Salesian Missions has been providing its New Beginnings program for young male and female Sri Lankan refugees who have been living in refugee camps in 15 target districts in India. In 2015, Salesian missionaries are serving 550 individuals by providing vocational training through a network of nine Salesian-run Don Bosco schools spread across Southeast India. In addition, 550 women are benefiting from refugee camp-based small business incubator programs. The New Beginnings program provides market-conscious vocational and technical skills training that results in livable wage employment, allowing trainees to better support themselves and their families. Many refugees enter the program with few, if any, job prospects or with a history of low paid part-time work experience which is typically unskilled and often dangerous and exploitative.

REFUGEES IN KENYA

Kakuma was established in 1992 near Kenya’s border with South Sudan and was a place of refuge for unaccompanied minors fleeing warring factions in what was then southern Sudan. Today, the Kakuma refugee camp has more than 180,000 refugees, well over the 120,000 person capacity for which it was built. More than 44 percent of the refugees at the camp are from South Sudan and arrived after fleeing the country to escape conflict and violence.

Kakuma is operated by UNHCR in collaboration with Salesian missionaries in the country as well as several other humanitarian organizations. The camp offers refugees safety, security and life-saving services such as housing, healthcare, clean water and sanitation. Salesian missionaries at Kakuma refugee camp operate the Holy Cross Parish and the Don Bosco Vocational Training Center where 1,044 young men and women are receiving critical employment and life skills. There are many courses available and those studying welding, carpentry and bricklaying often utilize their new skills helping to build infrastructure within the camp. Salesian missionaries are currently seeking funding to build a new school on a donated plot of land at the refugee camp in order to meet the growing demand.

Salesian missionaries at the camp also operate the Helping Children to be Children program which gathers refugee children and leads them in games, songs and classes held outdoors on the camp grounds. As part of the program, children are offered the opportunity to draw and learn to speak English. Close to 3,000 children benefit from this Salesian program which currently has no steady funding and is run primarily by refugee volunteers.

SYRIAN REFUGEES IN TURKEY

Sharing a 500-mile-long border with Syria, Southeastern Turkey has more than 1.6 million Syrian refugees, as reported by the United Nations. Salesian missionaries are providing services at three sites within Syria while also providing for Syrian refugees in Turkey. While many Syrian refugees stay in towns on the Turkey-Syrian border, many find their way to big cities like Istanbul where Salesian missionaries operate a program that currently serves close to 400 Syrian refugees.

At the Don Bosco Center in Istanbul, Salesian Father Andres Calleja Ruiz leads special programs for refugee children and youth from Syria as well as for a growing number of families fleeing ISIS persecution in Iraq. Because most refugees do not speak the local language it is difficult for children to attend school and adults to find work. At the Center, Salesian missionaries provide a school for more than 350 refugee children where they learn English language skills and traditional school subjects such as mathematics, geography and music. Students have access to sports and dance programs intended to help them connect with their peers and find enjoyment and comfort in their new surroundings. In addition, the program provides counseling both for youth and their families to help them overcome the challenges and traumas they have faced.

Technical skills training is a critical component of Salesian work in Istanbul. Many refugees leave the country’s border towns and refugee camps and make their way to Istanbul hoping to find employment and a more stable life. If they fail to find work, refugees are often left in dire circumstances. The Don Bosco Center’s technical skills training program is a critical safety net for those in need.

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Sources:

World Refugee Day 2015

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Celebrated each year on August 12, the day was established by the United Nations to raise awareness of issues affecting young people around the world. This year’s theme –“Youth Migration: Moving Development Forward” – is in response to the challenges and opportunities raised by the estimated 27 million youth migrants around the world. According to the United Nations, young people aged 15 to 24 make up more than 10 percent of the 240 million international migrants.

Many of these young migrants are forced to flee from poverty or war. Nearly all of them are searching for better opportunities and safer environments.

Upon arrival in new surroundings, migrants often lack the education and skills needed to survive, and many are homeless. Sometimes young people are left behind by migrating parents and face psychological and social challenges as well as greater vulnerability.

Salesians working around the globe focus on meeting the specific needs of youth facing these challenges. From homeless shelters and youth centers for street children to education and vocational training designed specifically for refugees – the Salesians provide not only a safety net but successful solutions to end the cycle of poverty.

Widely regarded as the largest private provider of vocational and technical training—and working in more than 130 countries around the globe—the Salesians are positioned to make a big impact in the area of youth migration. Already embedded in their local communities, Salesians are able to help refugees who are often seen as “outsiders.”

RURAL COMMUNITIES, AGRICULTURE & YOUTH MIGRATION

To fight the patterns of migration that decimate rural villages in some of the poorest places on the planet, Salesian Missions works to develop programs focused on sustainable agriculture while also improving local economic opportunities. By improving conditions in villages, the local youth there are less likely to migrate to urban areas where they too often join other youth in homelessness and a cycle of poverty and violence.

In Kenya, agricultural training has made a significant difference at the Kakuma Refugee Camp. There, a demonstration farm enables training in agriculture skills while producing fresh fruit and vegetables to feed the refugees and inhabitants of the camp. Agricultural skills are also an important component at the Bosco Boys Kuwinda facility. There, students receive training in the raising and care of livestock including poultry, cows and pigs, as well as in the growing and tending of vegetable gardens. Eggs and meat are sold from the farm to help support the project and all of the milk produced is consumed by the community.

In Ecuador, through a Salesian Missions’ microfinance credit program, indigenous and rural populations have access to funds for agricultural and microbusiness activities. Currently, 12,000 people are taking advantage of this opportunity in 85 different communities.

In Cambodia, the Salesian-run Pascual Gentilini Agricultural School recently celebrated its 85th year teaching agricultural skills to poor youth. The school’s curriculum includes lessons in community service, vegetable gardening, cooking, maintenance, music, annual crops, cultivation of tea, fruit farming, zootechnics, bee-keeping, cattle-raising, leadership training and social work. Agricultural technical training encompasses one to six years of study. The school’s students are enthusiastic and eager to learn modern methods of farming together with business management.

WAR, VIOLENCE & YOUTH  MIGRATION

Salesian Missions has developed programs to empower youth migrants with funding support from the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration.

Since 1983, ethnic violence in Sri Lanka has forced tens of thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils from their homeland in search of safety and a new life in Tamil Nadu, India. Since 2010, Salesian Missions has provided a vocational and entrepreneurial program for young male and female Sri Lankan refugees who have been living in refugee camps in 15 target districts in India. In June 2013, 860 refugees graduated from this program. Half of these students attended a Salesian technical and vocational training center, learning job skills in electrical work, woodworking, computer technology and other similar trades.

In recent years, more than 450,000 people have fled from violence in Colombia to neighboring Ecuador, Venezuela, Panama and Costa Rica. Salesian Missions’ “New Beginnings” initiative, which started in 2011, has worked with more than 1,000 Colombian refugees in these four countries to provide vocational and human development training as well as job placement services. Many of the Colombian refugees had few marketable skills but the “New Beginnings” program allowed them the opportunity to start over and build a stable, hopeful future for themselves and their families. Through the program, each refugee student received 260 hours of technical training as well as job placement services.

“The United States takes great pride in our commitment to the rights of migrants to realize educational and professional opportunities in their new homes,” the State Department said in an official statement.

RESHAPING THE FUTURE

“It is important to emphasize the positive contribution young migrants make to societies of origin, transit and destination – economically and by enriching the social and cultural fabric. Most work hard to earn a living and improve their circumstances,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message for the Day.

Young people have the potential to change negative societal patterns of behavior and break cycles of violence and discrimination that pass from one generation to the next. Salesian Missions remains committed to providing education, opportunities and hope to the world’s most vulnerable youth to help end the cycle of poverty which builds better lives and stronger communities.

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Sources:

UNICEF
http://www.unicef.org/programme/youth_day/partner.htm

United Nations
http://www.unworldyouthreport.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=84&Itemid=180

U.S. Department of State
http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2013/08/213041.htm

The post INTERNATIONAL YOUTH DAY: Salesian Missions Highlights Programs Around the Globe that Empower Youth Migrants, Shape Brighter Futures first appeared on MissionNewswire.

The program—which initially received funding for 12 months in February 2012—centers on reinforcing primary education systems at six schools in highly volatile Quetta, Pakistan. A Salesian primary school and five Salesian-supported schools have been receiving support specific to the needs and challenges of educating the Afghan refugee population. UNHCR’s Head of Office in Quetta, Charles Lynch-Staunton, commended Salesian Missions for this work in an official letter of support, stating “Salesian Missions for Don Bosco is a UNHCR Operating Partner and active member of our Afghan Refugee Education Coordinating Network in Baluchistan.”

The Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) has extended funding for an additional six months. This extension ensures that the progress made through the program will continue, working toward the goal of having schools become self-sufficient, no longer reliant on international assistance.

In Pakistan, 2,200 boys and girls ages 4 to 13 are benefitting from Salesian Missions’ comprehensive approach to strengthening their education. The program includes everything from teacher training and resource improvements for child learning, to infrastructure improvement and web-ready computer labs.

“The students are among the most passionate of any I have seen in the world,” said Neill Holland, Deputy Director of the Salesian Missions Office for International Programs and the agency’s Country Representative for Pakistan. “They are more bright-eyed, energetic, and outgoing than you would ever imagine considering what these kids have witnessed, fleeing across the border with their families, and for many, a life-long war in their homeland.”

The PRM-funded program administered by Salesian Missions and local partners in Afghanistan has resulted in fully equipped and updated, kid-friendly schools.

“Locally, we have gone from schools without sanitation, and from classroom walls that were in danger of falling over; to schools that are structurally safe, have new bathrooms and hygiene education, books, uniforms and even computers—and a connection to the outside word—for the first time ever,” added Holland, who recently returned from a program monitoring trip where he saw the impact first-hand.

Positive impact includes more than 70 teachers, professionally trained for their work with the refugee youth population and motivated to make a difference in their improved schools. As a result, an estimated 85 percent of students who are age-eligible to graduate are forecasted to pass their examinations. Furthermore, the program administration has ensured through advocacy and policy dialogue with Government and NGO Partners that the education students receive in Pakistan will be recognized by the Government of Afghanistan, should their families return home.

“We are working to reinforce primary education in a way that will continue to assist the Afghan children regardless of whether their parents choose to stay in the host country or to return to Afghanistan.” explained Holland.

The goal of the Quetta program is to mainstream struggling Afghan refugee schools so they may become a part of the Pakistani education community, and benefit from its shared institutional resources, even while they serve Afghani youth. Part of this results-driven strategy involves creating useful partnerships with local organizations and the government that can be leveraged to sustain these refugee schools during the years ahead. In fact, the Salesians had already been working in these communities for some time, and their focus on fostering strong community relationships has made them a pivotal U.S. Government partner. Proven results include reaching established program goals and surpassing all expectations.

“This success was realized expressly through the contribution of Salesian Missions’ local team of dedicated lay staff in Quetta, male and female, who give 100 percent every day despite security concerns for themselves and their families.” says Holland. “Their inspiration comes from an enduring sense of brotherhood – and sisterhood – with the vulnerable Afghan refugee community they serve. To work alongside our team of local staff in Pakistan is to experience the heartbeat of humanity, the bond shared between people regardless of their race, creed, color or gender. ”

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PHOTOS: Neill Holland/Salesian Missions

ABOUT SALESIAN MISSIONS

Salesian Missions is the U.S. development arm of the international Salesians of Don Bosco—specializing in programs and services for at-risk youth in more than 130 countries. The Salesians are widely considered the world’s largest private provider of vocational and technical education. The Office for International Programs is the global development arm of Salesian Missions which supports programs globally through partnerships with the U.S. government and private-sector organizations, state-of-the-art concepts, and in-kind financial support. Salesian Missions is headquartered in New Rochelle, NY, and is part of the Don Bosco Network—a worldwide federation of Salesian NGOs. For more information, go to www.SalesianMissions.org or www.MissionNewswire.org.

ABOUT THE DOS BUREAU OF POPULATION, REFUGEES AND MIGRATION

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration provides aid and sustainable solutions for refugees, victims of conflict and stateless people around the world, through repatriation, local integration, and resettlement in the United States. PRM also promotes the United States’ population and migration policies. For more information, go to www.state.gov/j/prm/.

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