Jordan
During her first official trip to the Kingdom of Jordan, the UN Secretary General’s Youth Envoy, Jayathma Wickramanayake, paid a visit to the Za’atari Refugee Camp. The camp hosts 500.000 refugees, 56% of them under the age of 18.
There she met with the Zaatari Youth Task Force to discuss their work with the Compact for Young People in Humanitarian Action. The Youth Envoy’s visit was partly organised as a learning mission, to take away good localisation practices to better inform the Compact. The Envoy and the Zaatari Youth Task force discussed the roll-out of the Guidelines for Programming with and for Young People in Humanitarian Action, which have been development by UNICEF and NRC on behalf of the Compact. Extensive work by local Compact members went into consulting and presenting the Guidelines to a number of sectors working within the refugee coordination model that exists in Jordan to respond to the Syria crisis.
Young people between 18-29 years make up 18.5% of the camp’s population, and the Youth Envoy visited a range of projects to learn about young people’s experiences living in the camp. The Makani Center, run by UNICEF Jordan, provides a safe space for young people to engage in sports, music and social innovation challenges. There she met young refugees engaged in the programs as facilitators and beneficiaries – and took part in an improvised football match!
Greece
This October 2019, Ms. Wickramanayake visited Greece for the first time during her time in office. Greece is home to over 80,000 refugees, many of whom are young people and 4,000 are unaccompanied minors. Young people and volunteers have played a crucial role in responding to the European Refugee Crisis in Greece and spearhead several important initiatives.
The Youth Envoy paid a visit to Kycklos, a volunteer-run integration centre in Athens that equips young people with language, social, and entrepreneurial skills. The centre is led by young refugees and is supported by UNHCR and the European Youth Initiative Fund.
At the height of the European Refugee Crisis in 2015, the Greek Scouts addressed the shortage of medicine and volunteers in high-flow refugee areas with a boat of medical supplies. The organization also raised funds through national campaigns that also increased support and created solidarity with refugees and their experiences. Scouts mobilised young people to provide food and other necessities in camps from Athens to the island of Lesvos. The Youth Envoy met with the Chief Commissioner of the Scouts of Greece, Christoforos Mitromaras, to learn more about this important work.
In the city of Thessaloniki, the Youth Envoy met with leaders from across the UN umbrella to discuss the conditions and prospects of young refugees and asylum seekers in Greece, she emphasised the need for interaction between refugees and host communities. She also visited the DIA center, run by YMCA Thessaloniki, where early childhood education is implemented through the use of multicultural and multilingual activities. For more information about the Youth Envoy’s visit to Greece, please visit: www.ekathimerini.com/245838/article/ekathimerini/community/un-official-young-people-are-spearheading-the-climate-debate
The Youth Envoy visits Kycklos, a volunteer-run open integration centre in Athens.