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^it is.. she's wonderful!
Here's some more pics from WRD!   
and some info about World Refugee Day that I got from UNHCR in my email.. Quote:
World Refugee Day 2004 with Colin Powell and Angelina Jolie
The crisis in Darfur, Sudan, and the flood of refugees into Chad was clearly on
the minds of Secretary of State Colin Powell and UNHCR's Goodwill Ambassador
Angelina Jolie this week as they launched World Refugee Day 2004.
Said Powell, "Today we renew our commitment. We pledge to support and protect
the world's refugees. Echoing the theme of today's event, we vow to help make
them feel at home within the international family. Together, we will work for
the day when the world's refugees can return to their homes and safety."
Said Jolie, "What home truly is and what it must be, is a place to belong, where
you can feel welcomed and not isolated or afraid. Where you can live your life
and raise your children without the fear of them being kidnapped or murdered.
They are out there right now, millions of people. They are under plastic tarps,
in mud huts and under trees. Some of them are gathered in old school gyms with
the windows blown out and they are holding on to each other, their families.
If they don't have their families, they are holding on to their communities.
Somehow, they are finding a way to survive and rise above their situation. It's
that spirit that we are celebrating today."
First Lady Laura Bush joined the event by video, praising all of us working on
the refugee cause, and asking that we, "keep up the good work."
A $500,000 gift from Angelina Jolie for a legal resource center in the United
States that will help unaccompanied refugee children with their asylum claims
was celebrated. There are an estimated 6,000 of these children in America today,
without parents or guardians; some are orphans and some have simply been
separated, in the chaos of war and conflict, from their family members.
American schoolchildren -- Anna Mullen, Phoebe Sturey and Tania Ku -- winners
of the World Refugee Day 2004 poster contest, received awards from Powell and
Jolie.
USA for UNHCR's Chair, The Honorable Molly Raiser, thanked you and all USA for
UNHCR supporters, and announced a new partnership with the Kuwait America
Foundation expected to raise $1,000,000 for refugees in the next year.
The renowned photographer and resettled Afghan refugee, Zalmai, whose book,
"Return, Afghanistan" features his extraordinary pictures of Afghanistan's
reconstruction, was also at World Refugee Day, and his work is on exhibit at
National Geographic's Explorer's Hall.
This year's World Refugee Day theme, "To Feel at Home," goes back to the
earliest values of sanctuary embraced by peoples across the world, values which
have been enshrined in international law through the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Mawi Asgedom , a resettled refugee from Ethiopia, reminded us of these basic
values when he recounted his amazing journey from a mud adobe hut to the
commencement speaker at Harvard University, "When I think of what makes America
great, I think of the kindness that so many of my neighbors have shown me over
the years. I think of how they made my family finally feel at home." Mawi
added, "God Bless America." Secretary of State Colin Powell gave Mawi a warm
handshake and a beaming, proud smile as the audience applauded and wept.
On this World Refugee Day, 2004, we at USA for UNHCR, and the 6,000 staff of
UNHCR want to wish you a happy World Refugee Day, and thank you for your
involvement in this great humanitarian work. You remain an inspiration to us. We
need you and ask that you stay by our side, as, regrettably, there are still 20
million people who need us. 10 million are children.
| [ June 22, 2004, 07:57 AM: Message edited by: Silje ] |
06-17-2004, 04:14 PM
