ISSN 1710-6931 December 24, 2004 Issue 37
FEATURE ARTICLES

Thank You To All of Our Volunteers

by Marc Schaeffer
International Coordinator
RESPECT International

RESPECT International has had another banner year thanks to the effort and participation of our volunteers, teachers, students and other stakeholders. RESPECT International has continued to introduce refugee students to non-refugee students at the steady pace of around one hundred a month. This represents around 60 groups of non-refugee students paired with groups of refugee students in Northern Uganda, Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). RESPECT is also excited to welcome Nigeria and Tanzania to RESPECT International's Affiliate family.

RESPECT is thankful Sandrine Cortet has taken on the responsibility of coordinating French RESPECT Global Letter Exchange Program. In a few short months French RESPECT has already introduced over 600 refugee students in the DRC to non-refugee students in France, Canada, and others. RESPECT continues to thank Will Wallace for his never-ending work on our website and ezine. more>>

Letters from Japan to Mohomou Refugee School

Seiichi Terashima's class of thirteen year-old boys and girls in Yatabe-East Junior High School wrote to their first set of refugee pen-pals in Mohomou Refugee School. Even though they have only been studying English for a couple of years, they did an excellent job! The letters are very nice and many of them are well decorated. more>>

French Letter Exchange Creates 1300 Pen Pals

by Sandrine Cortet

So far 651 French speaking non-refugee students have been introduced to 651 refugee pen pals. The young refugees are all located in camps in the South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The non-refugee students attend school in several countries as follows:

  • 12 are from Russia
  • 18 are from Brazil
  • 35 are from Belgium
  • 80 are from USA
  • 184 are from Canada (Quebec)
  • 322 are from France

more>>

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Thank You!

RESPECT would like to thank the Manitoba Hotel Association for donating a lovely used fax/copy machine to RESPECT on December 17, 2004. Thank you MHA!


Unite For Sight Second Annual Health Conference

The Unite For Sight (UFS) Second Annual International Health Conference "Eyes on International Collaboration: Promoting Health From Campus to Lab to Field" will be held April 2 and 3, 2005 at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

Information on the conference schedule and speakers can be found on the UFS website. Register before March 20, 2005 to receive the early bird registration rate.


AFFILIATES

RESPECT Teams With UK's Young STARs

by Noreen

Started over 10 years ago as a university group in Nottingham, England, Student Action for Refugees has grown to become a large network in about 30 universities. It has over 200 youth members, including young refugees and asylum seeker children. It is a one-of-a-kind organization focusing on raising awareness and campaigning on refugee and asylum issues, and volunteering on refugee and asylum support projects in the community.

Debbie Lowe, the Student Outreach Officer for STAR, says their main goal for joining the RESPECT letter exchange program is to "bring the lives of real refugees and asylum seekers to life for our students and for them to learn about the issues faced by this group of people outside the UK." She hopes the letters her students write will give the refugee students hope and courage, and allow both sides to share experiences, learn new things and realize there are many similarities amongst them all.


As in any newsletter or magazine, RESPECT e-zine is committed to striving for interesting articles and announcements concerning refugee issues all around the world.

If you have any suggestions or would like to contribute an article, contact the e-Zine editor, Will Wallace at editor@respectrefugees.org.

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