SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Ruud Lubbers and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie are scheduled to
meet in Salt Lake City this week with renowned wildlife expert Dr. Jane
Goodall, who is exploring programs to benefit the world's refugee children.
Lubbers and Jolie are among the panelists scheduled to take part Saturday
in a Salt Lake City round-table discussion on sports and children. The event
is sponsored by Olympic Aid, an international association of athletes
dedicated to promoting healthy sports and play as a right of all the world's
children. Olympic Aid sponsors sports programs for refugee children in more
than a dozen UNHCR camps in Africa and Asia.
"I can't think of a better time and place -- Salt Lake City at the start
of the Winter Olympics -- to join forces with two of the world's most
prominent women to draw attention to the needs and the potential of millions
of refugee children," said Lubbers, whose agency works in some 120 countries
and has twice won the Nobel Peace Prize.
"As the world gathers in the spirit of friendship and healthy competition,
we need to be aware that there are many refugee children who have never known
the carefree joy of a simple childhood game or the sense of accomplishment
that comes from teamwork. Many have simply forgotten how to be children.
Play and teamwork can help heal their emotional scars and restore at least
some semblance of normalcy in the otherwise alien environment of a refugee
camp."
Jolie is an Oscar-winning American actress who was named a UNHCR Goodwill
Ambassador by Lubbers last year. She has visited refugee camps and operations
in Africa and Asia. The journals she kept to share her field experiences are
published on http://www.usaforunhcr.org .
Goodall, perhaps best known for her 40-year study of wild chimpanzees in
Africa, is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, an international
organization dedicated to animal research, conservation and environmental
education. A key part of the Institute's outreach is its Roots and Shoots
program, an international environmental and humanitarian education program for
young people with some 4,000 groups in more than 50 countries. She and
Lubbers are examining possible Roots & Shoots projects for children in refugee
camps.
Fun, hands-on projects aimed at connecting children with their natural
environment -- one of the main goals of Goodall's Roots & Shoots program --
can give young people a greater sense of community and self-respect. The
presence of large numbers of refugees can have a serious impact on the
surrounding environment, affecting water supplies, forests and animal
populations, for example. In recent years, UNHCR has worked with host
governments to try to alleviate the environmental impact as much as possible.
Lubbers said the Roots & Shoots program would give the refugees themselves an
opportunity to identify appropriate projects -- re-forestation, for example --
and then to carry them out with the possible support of other branches
worldwide.
SOURCE UN High Commissioner for Refugees
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Related links:
http://www.unhcr.ch
CONTACT:
In Salt Lake City, Panos Moumtzis,
+1-202-494-0971, or in Washington, D.C., Rachel
Goldstein-Rodriguez, +1-202-296-5595 ext. 19, both of the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees
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