Nine Million Children Refugees: Refugees

UNHCR staff rock to the rhythms of the Refugee All Stars

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 07:39:29 GMT

Refugee All Stars vocalists Reuben and Grace get their UNHCR audience in the mood. © UNHCR/ L. Dobbs

GENEVA, July 3 (UNHCR) – The acclaimed Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars band paid their first visit to the Geneva headquarters of the UN refugee agency on Tuesday and had staff dancing in the atrium and galleries of the normally sombre building.

"The Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars are always happy to see people like you," the charismatic lead vocalist, Reuben Koroma, told dozens of UNHCR staff members who had forgone their lunch to hear a band that has been making waves around the world in the past two years.

"We are the survivors from the brutal war . . . our aim is to exercise patience and strong courage with music to conquer all obstacles and reform our lives," he said, before the nine-piece band ripped into their opening number, "Weapon Conflict."

For full story please read http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/468a72f52.html

Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 08:06:21 GMT

All the members of Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars lived in or near Sierra Leone's capital city Freetown before fleeing, during the country's decade-long civil war in the 90s. Among the thousands who fled were musicians and future band members Reuben M. Koroma and Franco (Francis Langba) who met in Kalia refugee camp in Guinea.

When Reuben and his wife Grace located Franco they began making music for their fellow refugees, providing a welcome distraction to the monotonous life in refugee camps. Their efforts, however, were to be short lived.

Safety in the Kalia camp disintegrated and the initial band members, among many other refugees, were evacuated from the area and relocated to Sembakounya refugee camp. Thanks to UNHCR and a Canadian refugee aid organization (CECI), the developing band was able to acquire some music instruments that helped officially launch the group.

After a first world tour in USA, Australia, Canada and Japan, now Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars is touring Europe (Netherlands, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany). Their message of peace and hope in a "can't help but dance" show that fans from all musical backgrounds can enjoy. With a spirited and infectious fusion of traditional West African music, roots reggae and rhythmic traditional folk, Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars crafts music that transforms and uplifts.

Championed by The New York Times, critic Stephen Holden wrote, “As harrowing as these personal tales may be, the music buoying them is uplifting. The cliché bears repeating: music heals and creates community.”

The Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars will also play at the “Musiques en Ete Festival” at Parc La Grange (Geneva, Switzerland) on Wednesday 4 July at 8:30PM.

International Women's Day

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 11:58:13 GMT

International Women's Day: UNHCR and Nike encourage Somali refugee girls to play sports

DADAAB, Kenya, March 8 (UNHCR) – It has been a hard struggle, but UNHCR and its corporate partner Nike have had some success over the past three years in encouraging Somali girls to engage in sports at three refugee camps here in north-east Kenya.

When the partners launched their "Together for Girls" campaign in July 2004, less than 100 girls played sport compared to more than 5,000 boys in Dadaab, a three-camp complex hosting some 170,000 refugees.

None of the girls were from the mainly Muslim Somali community, which makes up 98 per cent of Dadaab's refugee population. But today, more than 270 Somali refugee girls regularly play sports on the dusty camp facilities – most play volleyball, but some also enjoy badminton, handball, netball and football.

And some of them will be taking part in a special volleyball tournament being held today in Dadaab's Dagahaley camp to mark International Women's Day. Aid workers will take on a team of refugees drawn from Dagahaley and Ifo camps.

"This pilot initiative has gone a long way in really helping girls to come out of their houses and say, 'Look, we can also play sports,'" said Nemia Temporal, the head of UNHCR's office in Dadaab. The campaign also tallies with one of the core aims of the joint UNHCR-Nike-Microsoft ninemillion.org campaign – to get young female refugees more involved in sports.

For more please see http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/45efd1154.html

YOU COULD BE A REFUGEE!

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 16:21:21 GMT

Einstein was a refugee!!

ninemillion.org is a campaign to raise awareness and funds for the nine million refugee children around the world. These nine million refugee children are of all nationalities and live in almost every country in the world. This does not mean nine million refugee children in Africa alone.

This is not a situation that can be solved by nations alone but requires a global effort.

While some people find it easy to say “there are many children in need in my country, we should help our own children before we help others”. I question that with - Do children choose where they are born? Do children choose to be refugees? Should we choose which children we are going help and which we are not?

Tragedy can strike at any time. Not all refugees are poor people. Einstein was a refugee. You too could be a refugee, without warning and without choice. Would you want others to help you?

By supporting ninemillion.org you are helping children from and in your own country! You are also helping others.

We at ninemillion.org would like to thank everyone for all of your comments. We would also like to let you know that while all comments received through ninemillion.org are read not all comments are posted on the space. ninemillion.org does not and will not post racial comments.

ninemillion.org's goal is to:

Change mindsets to reduce intolerance and empower youth to take action to improve the lives of nine million refugee children.