UAE students gather to seek out answers to humanitarian problem
One focus will be on providing education to displaced youth
DUBAI // Hundreds of students will have the chance to make changes in the region and play their part in the UAE’s Year of Giving tomorrow with ideas on relieving humanitarian crises.
They will take part in the Youth Engagement and Global Refugee Crisis conference, organised by the American University in Dubai (AUD) in collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ( UNHCR).
“The situation is dire and 38 per cent of people displaced in the world are in the Middle East and North Africa, out of more than 65 million worldwide,” said Toby Harward, head of UNHCR Abu Dhabi.
“The biggest crisis is Syria but we also have major crises in Iraq and Yemen and, increasingly, in South Sudan, where it’s now become more than one and a half million fleeing to Uganda.”
Last week, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Steven O’Brien, said that the world was facing the largest humanitarian crisis since the end of the Second World War.
“Our records keep getting broken,” Mr Harward said. “For us in the UAE, we have been extremely lucky that President Sheikh Khalifa declared this year to be the Year of Giving and we looked at the key pillars, which are corporate service responsibility, spirit of volunteering and serving the nation.”
From volunteering and education to training and creating new technologies to help displaced people, the students will have their say.
“Youth is a critical mass of the refugees,” Mr Harward said.
“More than 50 per cent of refugees globally are children and youths and many of them aren’t able to have proper education and their lives have been put on hold.
“It’s natural to see what more can other, more prosperous and fortunate, youth do in the region and globally to engage in how they can make their voices heard and become more in- volved in projects to build effective programmes for refugees.”
Students from Zayed University, Sorbonne University – Abu Dhabi and New York University Abu Dhabi will attend the conference , along with Christos Stylianides, European Union commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management.
“We believe in the voice of the youth very much,” Mr Harward said. “They will talk about their experiences, what they’ve done in terms of volunteering with refugees in Greece and elsewhere or how they engaged with charities in the private sector. It’s important to get them involved because they are the voice of advocacy to provide a voice to refugees.”
The students can look no further than the country where they live for inspiration as the UAE is heavily involved in humanitar- ian work in the region and beyond. “Young people can do many things apart from the usual volunteering and feel responsible towards the community they belong to,” said Elias Bou Saab, former Lebanese education minister and executive vice president at AUD.
“They can start innovating ways and ideas that could help in crises, whether it’s training, education, creating some type of technology aid, an app, or any way to ramp up educating children.
“Participating and feeling responsible is important.
“We’re not tackling how to put an end to these crises – we’re assuming these things exist but what can the community do? What should the reaction be and how can they help?”
Dr Tareq Al Gurg, chief executive of Dubai Cares, said today’s youth were technologically integrated, fast-paced and eager to change the world.
“It is highly important to broaden the base of youth engagement in the region,” he said. “Recent events around the world have delivered powerful examples of the potential of young people to mobilise, engage in social, economic, political and humanitarian issues and to drive the positive change they want to see.”
For more information on the conference, visit audunhcr. com.