Hope Away from Home: JA and Youth Refugees
June 20, 2023
World Refugee Day is an international day designated by the United Nations to honor refugees around the globe. In 2023, the theme is “Hope Away from Home.”
The UN seeks to build empathy and understanding for both the plight and resilience of refugees and other displaced and stateless people—who are fleeing war, persecution, or terror—through World Refugee Day. The agency recognizes several types of forcibly displaced persons:
Refugees: “A refugee is someone who fled his or her home and country owing to “a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion”, according to the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention. Many refugees are in exile to escape the effects of natural or human-made disasters.”
Asylum seekers: “Asylum seekers say they are refugees and have fled their homes as refugees do, but their claim to refugee status is not yet definitively evaluated in the country to which they fled.”
Internally displaced persons: “Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are people who have not crossed an international border but have moved to a different region than the one they call home within their own country.”
Stateless persons: “Stateless persons do not have a recognized nationality and do not belong to any country. Statelessness situations are usually caused by discrimination against certain groups. Their lack of identification—a citizenship certificate—can exclude them from access to important government services, including health care, education or employment.”
Returnees: “Returnees are former refugees who return to their own countries or regions of origin after time in exile. Returnees need continuous support and reintegration assistance to ensure that they can rebuild their lives at home.”
““Refugees represent the very best of the human spirit. They need and deserve support and solidarity — not closed borders and pushbacks.””
According to the UN, the world is witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record, and over half are young people under the age of 18 who are often denied access to education. But JA is there to offer educational services to displaced youth, including the following examples:
INJAZ Lebanon and UNICEF Train Youth Refugees
INJAZ Lebanon has partnered with UNICEF Lebanon and the Kingdom of the Netherlands to launch Generation of Innovation Leaders (GIL) in Bekaa and North of Lebanon. Designed to unlock access to the knowledge while also addressing high unemployment rates, GIL includes 30 hours of entrepreneurship training and another 25+ hours of coaching, incubation, and support. Since 2017, GIL has empowered 3,200 refugees, 700 seven of which reached the incubation phase and received seed funding for their startup.
Mhanna El Assaad, a Syrian refugee and GIL participant focused his startup venture on hydroponics, enabling him to grow vegetables in the north of Lebanon without the need for extensive soil usage. Mhanna then expanded his production by renting rooftops and walls in his neighborhood, and then transitioned to aquaponics by integrating fish farming into his agricultural system. Mentored and supported along the way, he participated in the Youth Agri Market (YAM) event organized by INJAZ Lebanon and secured the second place in the “Most Promising Youth Agribusiness” category for his startup, Natural Valley Bounties.
Photo from INJAZ Lebanon
JA Europe and UNICEF Partner to Support Ukrainian Youth Refugees
UNICEF and JA Europe (a regional operating center of JA Worldwide) teamed up to launch UPLIFT Youth, which aims to equip the most vulnerable youth and adolescents—most of which have arrived from Ukraine into neighboring countries—with life and business skills. Local youth are also part of the project to foster integration and social cohesion among young people, while also giving them a chance to transition from learning to earning.
Eleven countries have participated in the project: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Slovakia, with the support of JA Greece, JA Italy, and JA Ukraine.
By combining its expertise and experience, UNICEF and JA Europe aim to increase youth engagement, participation, and resilience, contributing to improved youth employability, a competitive labor force, sustained economic growth, improved governance, and vibrant civil societies in Europe.
Nina Ferencic, Regional Adviser on Adolescent Development at the UNICEF Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, noted that “UNICEF has worked closely with several national JA organizations and are delighted to embark on this pan-European project. JA Europe and UNICEF, working together with national partners and young people, are in a unique position to make a meaningful contribution to the lives of young Ukrainians and young people throughout Europe, promoting shared values of respect and solidarity.”
Despite being displaced across the continent, students working with JA Europe have been able to acquire the skills and confidence needed to further develop their business acumen and ultimately take charge of their own futures. This will prove a vital lifeline for rebuilding their futures, and eventually, the Ukrainian economy.
In Estonia, a group of displaced Ukrainian students formed a JA student company—called UA’ndWe—dedicated to sharing a love for good food and Ukraine. The company has launched foods from the Ukrainian national cuisine for the European market. So far, the dishes have been sold at five trade fairs, and this success reflects Europe’s eagerness to buy Ukrainian dishes and preserve its culture. UA’ndWe has already received orders from major international companies stationed in Estonia. During last year’s JA Europe’s Gen-E competition in Tallinn, Nikita Khmilevskiy, a Ukrainian student from the team, remarked that "our team met for the first time two months ago. We created a company from scratch and began to successfully sell our product here in Estonia. Only thanks to Junior Achievement has it become possible. We felt that same entrepreneurial spirit and we are proud to represent Ukraine here in such difficult times."
UNICEF and JA Italy Join Forces to Support Youth in Disadvantaged Situations
In addition, JA Italy has been pairing Ukrainian-speaking mentors with Ukrainian refugee youth (age 11 to 21) through the following two phases of JA UPSHIFT:
Innovation & Creativity Camp (8–10 hours): Participants are confronted with a real-world social problem for which they develop an innovative and sustainable solution.
Ideas in Action (10 hours): Through a methodology inspired by design thinking, participants change and/or validate the idea that emerged in the previous phase to give it an entrepreneurial shape and make it feasible and economically viable.
Unicef and JA Italy also partner through the Skills4Youth project, a four-hour entrepreneurship course (funded by AMIF) that develops teamwork, communication, managing emotions and social relationships, and empathy and helps youth understand their personal and professional aspirations, inclinations, and interests.
UNICEF and JA Greece Support Vulnerable Youth in Greece
As just one example of initiatives offered by JA Greece, UNICEF and JA Greece have teamed up to implement “Empower Young People for better employment and entrepreneurship opportunities,” which aims to teach and reinforce skills and create opportunities for young people with a refugee and migrant background, many of whom live in shelters. Watch more in the video below.