ADDIS ABABA – As part of the annual, global celebration of an international day for refugees, UNHCR, with support form its partners, colourfully celebrated the 2008th edition of World Refugee Day on Friday under the theme “Protection.” The aim was to create greater awareness on the work of UNHCR to ensure that refugees enjoy international protection.

The Friday afternoon celebration at the African Union in particular drew a great number of representatives of the Addis-based diplomatic community, heads of UN agencies, government and African Union officials to mention a few. Statements calling for increased international support to refugees as well as to address the root causes of forced displacement in Africa were delivered by officials of the African Union, a representative of the Ethiopian government responsible for refugee matters as well as by UNHCR Regional Liaison Representative Ilunga Ngandu. Mr. Ngandu said he was himself an Internally Displaced Person (IDP) early in his life and knows it pretty well how it feels to be uprooted from home and get dispossessed of everything. He sounded an earnest call to African leaders to work on policies that effectively address forced displacement of people.

A refugee girl from Congo Democratic Republic and a refugee boy from Somalia also shared their experiences as refugees and the kind of support they were getting from UNHCR, the government of Ethiopia and other humanitarian organizations.

Refugee children sang in a choir while adult refugees set up stalls to display and sell products that were produced by themselves. The market was meant to show to the world what refugees were capable of doing while at the same time aimed to help refugees generate some income.

Also on Friday, a UNHCR documentary entitled “Working With Refugees,” was screened at the Alliance Ethio-Francasie cinema hall to a packed audience of students, diplomats, officials and refugees. The film described UNHCR’s mandate and role in the humanitarian filed and demonstrated the UN refugee agencies often immediate reaction to major emergencies. That was followed by a lively question & answer session that witnessed a very active participation from the audience

Refugee children who participated and excelled in a writing competition were also awarded and encouraged on the occasion.

UNHCR currently hosts more than 80,000 refugees in six camps. All the refugee camps also commemorated the day on Friday with various activities.

Courtesy: UNHCR Public Information Unit.

For further information please contact Mr. Kisut Gebre Egziabher, Senior Public Information Assistant UNHCR-RLO E-mail:[email protected]