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Refugee children resettled in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, attend school.
© UNHCR/J.Rae
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The
UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is sponsoring the 2007
World Refugee Day Photo Contest. Students are invited
to submit their photos around the theme, “A new home, a new
life.”
Every
year, millions of refugees are forced to flee their home countries
due to persecution, war and human rights violations. Many refugees
cannot return home, but are fortunate to find safety and a new
life in the United States.
Photos
should illustrate the United States’ long tradition of welcoming
refugees and the contribution refugees have made to their new
communities.
Deadline
for entries is April 30, 2007. Winners will be flown to Washington,
DC, for the World Refugee Day ceremony on June 20. To
learn more, read the contest rules and guidelines.
2. Sign
up now - Live video chat on the Darfur refugee crisis
Join a live interactive video chat with a UNHCR aid worker just
returned from the Chad/Darfur region and share his firsthand
experience with your students on the challenges facing displaced
people and humanitarian workers in the region.
Date:
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Time:
Chat 1 at 10:00 am - 11:00 am or Chat 2 at 12:00 noon
- 1:00 pm
Subject:
There are an estimated two million internally displaced people
(IDPs) in Darfur, including 250,000 who have fled fighting in
the past six months. Eastern Chad hosts 230,000 Sudanese refugees
from Darfur in 12 UNHCR camps. There are also 20,000 Chadian
refugees who have fled to Darfur following insecurity in border
areas of their homeland over the past year. Conflict and insecurity
in Darfur are the main challenges for IDPs, refugees and the
aid workers helping them. In recent months, 12 aid workers have
been killed in Darfur.
Sign-up
information: Click
here to sign up for the video chat. Please sign up for
only one chat. The first 25 people to register for each session
will be accepted. Share a computer with your fellow teachers
to allow more teachers to participate. You will be notified
by email if you have been accepted and instructions on how to
participate will be sent to you. A desktop or laptop with internet
access is all that is needed to participate. If you miss this
chat, it will be archived for future viewings.
Learn
more about the Chad/Darfur refugee crisis.
3.
News to use in the classroom
Afghanistan:
UNHCR
shelter kits reach more than a million Afghan returnees
More
than one million people have benefited from the UN refugee agency's
shelter project in Afghanistan, alleviating a pressing need
for one of the most vulnerable groups in the war-torn country.
Learn more about
the Afghanistan refugee crisis.
Kenya:
New
refugee teachers one of the keys to development in southern
Sudan
Grace Anyieth has wanted to be a teacher since she was a child,
but she now sees it as more than just a vocation after years
of exile from her troubled homeland. The 24-year-old plans to
use her chosen career to help in the development of southern
Sudan, which is emerging from a civil war that killed some 1.5
million people over more than two decades.
Learn
more about the South Sudan refugee crisis.
Switzerland:
UNHCR
and business partners give refugee kids a voice through ninemillion.org
campaign
UN
High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres briefed
participants at the annual World Economic Forum on an innovative
way to give voice to many of the world's millions of refugee
children.
Learn
more about helping refugee children.
Sign up another teacher
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