UNHCR - a Community Based Approach to People of Concern

Here is a link outlining UNHCR's change of approach to the people that they serve. The change looks at people of concern not as dependent beneficiaries who are to be saved and assisted, but rather as equal partners who have an active role in protecting themselves and organizing for their own basic needs. The document states the need for an attitudinal change within the organiztion. This is useful to me as I begin working with UNHCR's Community Development section.

http://www.unhcr.org/publ/PUBL/47f0a5a92.pdf

Practicum 2009 - UNHCR the UN Refugee Agency

From January - June of 2009 I will fulfill my M.A. practictum requirements for Eastern Mennonite University's Center for Justice and Peacebuilding by working with UNHCR - The UN Refugee Agency in Geneva Switzerland. The section I will be working under is called Community Development, Gender Equality and Children. The UNHCR employs a staff of approximately 6,300 people in more than 110 countries

-UNHCR home page: http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home
-Brochure from my section on determining the interests of a child:
http://www.unhcr.org/protect/PROTECTION/4566b16b2.pdf
-Here is the group's mission statement: http://www.unhcr.org/publ/PUBL/4565a5742.pdf
-And, of course, the Wikipedia run down of what the agency does: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_High_Commissioner_for_Refugees


Here are some basic facts:

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country.

In more than five decades, the agency has helped an estimated 50 million people restart their lives. Today, a staff of around 6,300 people in more than 110 countries continues to help 32.9 million persons.