Path of the Refugee 2019

Name of the activity: Path of the Refugee 2019

Country/NMO: Netherlands (IFMSA-NL)

Program: Ethics & Human Rights in Health

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Advocacy. Series of efforts with the goal to influence policies or decision makers on a certain topic.

General description:

Imagine if you had to flee your own country in which you were born and raised, had to leave the people you love the most behind, lose all of your belongings and had to risk your life in order to seek protection and safety. It wouldn’t be a surprise to you when saying that many people around the world had no other choice. Many of us never had a talk with these so-called refugees and never heard their stories.

Path of the Refugee is an evening event to create awareness on refugees challenges in living and integrating in the Netherlands. We achieve this via a combination of “living library expiriences”, experts’ lectures and entertainment. During the event, participants could enjoy with us the Syrian cuisine, Arabic rap, henna and the most important: the stories of our speakers who shared their experiences in a frank and open way!

Focus area:

Peace, peacebuilding and health

Problem statement:

More people are currently displaced by war and conflict than ever previously recorded, and many are displaced for decades. The success of their integration is in part evaluated by how well refugees are integrating into their new communities. Although the focus is often on how refugees change to integrate, successful integration requires a social context that supports inclusion and participation. This includes changing the mindset and tackling the stereotypes affecting the hosting community.

Target groups:

General population, Medical students, Healthcare Students, Doctors, Other health professionals, Migrants, Refugees

Beneficiaries:

General population, Medical students, Healthcare Students, Other Students, Doctors, Other health professionals, Migrants, Refugees

Objectives and indicators of success:

1) create awareness that hosting community also have a responsability for obtaining a succesfull integration:

Having an audience for the lecture of at least 100 people

2) Promoting a positive image and fighting stereotypes on refugees : by bringing people together and By hearing the stories of the refugees, we hope that people will realise that being a refugee isn’t an identity, but rather an event that happened in the life of the person.

Methodology:

We organize every year an activity on this topic. We combine 1) living library expirience 2) food and culture 3) presentation by relevant NGOs on the topic

Plans for evaluation:

1) Counting the number of ticket sold

2) Feedback and post evaluation session with external partners and speakers