StARS’ ‘Youth Bridging Program’, is slowing the migration rate by providing its young beneficiaries with practical reasons to stay where they are.
Before accepting this year’s prize, Executive Director of StARS, Christopher Eades, told a capacity audience that: “Western governments need to understand the reasons why these desperate young people want to get out. “Most are from Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Syria, Sudan, and South Sudan, and they are very badly treated, enduring daily racist abuse and weekly assaults; there is no support and no infrastructure to support these vulnerable unaccompanied refugee children.”
StARS, whose in-house-trained staff is 95 percent refugees, and which pays all staff at local rates, is creating “opportunities for education, safe employment, and independent living enabling youth to survive and thrive in Cairo,” Mr Eades added. Guest speaker, Professor Alexander Betts, Director of the Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford, presented the Prize of $US100,000 at the annual ceremony in the Simpkins Lee Theatre, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University on Tuesday evening.
His speech was a powerful argument in support of the economic benefits of refugee self-reliance. As an example, he revealed and dissected glaring differences in economic outcomes between Kenya and Uganda where comparative research “has proven that open access to markets for refugees in Uganda benefits the whole country.”
In Kenya, a policy that tightly restricts refugee market activity by isolating them in camps actually costs the country more regardless of any benefits to local communities providing support services. The other finalists and their projects were:
To learn more about make donate charity with us visit our "Contact us" site. By calling +44(0) 800 883 8450 .