On 20 June 2017 WPDI and the Western Union Foundation (WU Foundation) joined forces to vibrantly celebrate World Refugee Day. WPDI held peacebuilding events at the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement in Northern Uganda.
As part of the WPDI- WU Foundation collaboration to improve the resilience of the communities of refugees who live in the Kiryandongo settlement, we held one of our Peace Engagement Day with various partners, including UNHCR, the Kiryandongo District and the Office of the Prime Minister of Uganda.
This series of events, which we organize monthly, is one the most important rendezvous for the communities targeted by our peacebuilding program aiming to disseminate within the settlement a culture of peace and to foster youth empowerment and employment. Attending community dialogues among different ethnic groups within the settlement, drama performances, traditional dances as well as sports tournament the nearly 1,400 participants were all the more inspired by the event that it was taking place on the UN observance day for refugees. The words formulated by the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on this occasion well express WPDI and the WU Foundation’s approach: “On World Refugee Day, we reflect on the courage of those who have fled and the compassion of those who welcome them.”
WPDI and the WU Foundation believe in world of openness, mutual exchanges, a world of peace and prosperity shared across countries and continents. Our collaboration in Kiryandongo, which hosts more than 60,000 people who fled the civil war in South Sudan, was launched in 2016 to make it possible for both our organizations to reach out to young people and communities who have been impacted by conflict but remain committed to regain their resilience. Our joint objective is to empower groups of young people as peace advocates and entrepreneurs who can make a difference in their communities. An integral part of our collaboration, the Peace Engagement Day events took place at our newly built Community Learning Center, a space dedicated to learning, communication and peacebuilding activities, and which the success of today’s event let us hope that it will soon become a community hub.
As another major contribution to World Refugee Day, the WU Foundation launched the #IAmMore Challenge to raise awareness and funds to support organizations that help refugees and displaced persons around the world, including WPDI. #IAmMore is designed as a global consumer Facebook campaign that pairs participants with a refugee. The idea is for individuals to select a match based on a common characteristic – their job, a personal trait, etc. — then swap their Facebook profile picture to share their match and challenge three friends to do the same. For every profile picture swapped through September 1st, the WU Foundation will donate USD $1 (up to USD $50,000 total) to programs that support refugees.
Join the Challenge !