Prevention measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic have further affected the condition of many refugees who are often left without assistance.
For these reasons, this year’s World Refugee Day is more important than ever at a global level. We must shine a light on the condition of millions of human beings. Aside from the numbers, we cannot forget that refugees are people who flee from their homes in search of a second chance.
This is the Still I Rise daily commitment: To ensure education, protection, and dignity to people who live in refugee camps and to the most vulnerable in the areas where we operate. We want to start from the most exposed – all the forgotten children who live in this terrible situation.
For the World Refugee Day this year, we asked the refugee students of Mazí to take time to imagine brighter futures for themselves and the whole world. They made art and reflected on their hopes and dreams.
What could the world be like with more support for children in poverty and fleeing persecution? What do they hope the world will become in 2025 or 2030?
Their answers show growing understanding of the very real difficulties as well as their actionable hopes: end racism, build peace and diversity, make friends, treat people equally, and help kids access education.
With a future that has a high chance of more displaced people due to climate change, we all hope that these dreams are quickly realized and that every person fleeing their home would have strong supports.
The world we want and need is one that gives hope and a future to refugee children.
In our school in Samos and Gaziantep, we already offer high-quality education and we will soon open new schools in Syria and Kenya. We strongly believe in the power of education to provide opportunities to thrive for refugees and vulnerable children whose right to schooling have been denied for too long.
