World Refugee Day 2004

Children from the Manana Youth Center in Yerevan, Armenia, have written true and fictional short stories to celebrate World Refugee Day. Their exceptional work is available online. Here's one example:

When I was a “stranger”

Years ago, when the situation in Armenia was difficult and people did everything they could to leave the country, my father got a job invitation from Switzerland. I was nine and had to go to school in my new country. First it was very hard for me, as I didn't even speak German. Children there looked down on me. They didn't play with me, didn't talk to me, and mocked me every time I tried to make friends with them. At home I cried and told my mother all these things, and she tried to calm me down. After a while I learned German, and I was able to acquire such close friends that even cried when I had to leave school during vacations.
When the classes started again we were introduced to a newcomer, a long-haired black girl. Sivasinie had a mole on her forehead. At our school, she tasted the same bitterness of a newcomer as I had tasted. Her skin color was the reason for all this. For a minute I put myself in her shoes and pitied her. We made friends little by little. Sivasinie told me she was a refugee from Sri Lanka. The enemy had blasted their school and her elder sister had saved her life. She cried when she told me this. She said she wanted to be back in her motherland where pine trees grew and elephants lived, where she could smell the fragrance of the flowers from their garden and pick coconuts. But, alas, all this was impossible.
Sivasinie could paint well, but her paintings were all of elephants, pine-trees, straw huts and a garden full of flowers. Soon we were back in Armenia . It was then that I realized that the best place in the world to be is where you were born and have grown up, even if your house is made of straw. Another thing I learned once and for all was that one should never look down those who are refugees, homeless, or just guests. Who knows what life will bring tomorrow? (Emma Martirossyan)

The children of the Manana Youth Center also have a photo club and put up a collection of pictures they took while visiting a Refugee Camp near the Armenian capital Yerevan.

There are also some OneMinutesJr on refugees on the OneMinutesJr website. Click the pictures to see two of them - from Armenia and Azerbaijan. You need QuickTime to watch the films (download QuickTime).

End of the line
by Gor Baghdazarian and David Babayan from Armenia

Refugee child
by Selim Musayev from Azerbaijan

Message on World Refugee Day, by Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General
20 June 2004 - For millions of refugees and displaced people around the world, "home" is a place they have fled from in fear for their lives, in a desperate attempt to find safety. Home is also a place many despair of ever seeing again, as they struggle to cope with the shattering enormity of losing family, friends, possessions and everything familiar to them. Amid the flight from conflict and persecution, in the tent cities of refugee camps, and during the wait in unbearable uncertainty to see what the future will hold, it is a refugee's most cherished dream to return home and live in dignity and security. That is why this year's World Refugee Day is dedicated to the theme, "A Place to Call Home."
FULL TEXT OF THE MESSAGE

Further Recources:
Refugee Children - Guidelines on Protection and Care
World Refugee Day 2004 - Information Kit (1.37 MB, PDF)

Links to articles on World Refugee Day:
The desperate plight of Darfur
A place to call home: Rebuilding lives in safety and dignity
Bellamy speaks out after visiting Darfur

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