Give refugees a chance, says teen recipient of peace prize
A SYRIAN teenager made a strong plea for the world to give refugees fleeing his country’s war an opportunity, as he received the prestigious International Children’s Peace Prize.
“We just want people to give us a chance to prove ourselves,” Mohamad al-Jounde said as he received the award at a gala ceremony in The Hague on Monday.
“I can promise you, we are people just like them, we live in the same world.”
The 16-year-old’s words came after a wave of Syrian air strikes killed at least 25 civilians and wounded dozens across the besieged rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus on Sunday, a Britain-based monitor said.
More than 340 000 people have died in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 and more than five million people have fled, according to the UN refugee agency.
Many refugees, including 2.5 million children, are now in camps in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and elsewhere.
“Mohamad receives the award for his tireless efforts to ensure the rights of Syrian refugee children,” the KidsRights Foundation, which organises the prize, said.
Despite being a refugee himself, the energetic boy and his family built a school now housing 200 children in a refugee camp in Lebanon where he taught maths, English and photography.
“As Mohamad knows, Syria’s future depends on its children and their future depends on education,” Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai said.
Jounde said: “My message to people who don’t want refugees to be there is we didn’t want to come either. But that’s what war does.”
Jounde now lives in Sweden with his father, but his mother and sister still live in Lebanon.”
“Start dealing with us as normal people, not as refugees or immigrants,” he said.