By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

june 20

CARE hosting month’s worth of activities for World Refugee Day

May 31, 2020 | 6:00 PM

June will be a busy month for those hoping to raise awareness in Red Deer about World Refugee Day.

Organizers say they hope the goings-on leading up to, on and after June 20 will educate people on why it’s beneficial to welcome refugees into our country and communities, and about their success stories.

Public Awareness Coordinator Jan Underwood, of Central Alberta Refugee Effort (CARE), says it’s important to stand up for refugees and to enlighten ourselves if we’ve never met one.

Each Friday in June, CARE will share episodes from its ‘Journeys of Hope’ documentary series, which were filmed in 2016 and shown as part of Alberta Culture Days. These can be seen on CARE’s Facebook page.

“One of the short films is about Red Deerian Zeljka Udovicic, who’s a social worker, and she and her son are the narrators. In her story, she tells of this very influential person, a teacher of hers in Serbia,” Underwood shares. “She got the idea last year to go back to the school she attended, where the teacher has since passed away, but she wanted to do something in her memory, so she created a scholarship for kids in the school who do volunteer or humanitarian work.”

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That type of act is very unheard of in Serbia, says Underwood.

“The current principal at the school was thrilled, and now that’s Zeljka’s legacy.”

CARE is also creating a photo project allowing local refugees or former refugees the chance to show through visual means what being a refugee and having come to Canada means to them. It will follow a similar format to the Humans of New York project, and be shared throughout the month.

CARE also hosts Culture Talks, a livestreamed discussion on its Facebook page, every Wednesday at 1 p.m. This month, all the guests will be current or former refugees.

“During this period of fear, uncertainty, and changes to our lifestyles, with inherent challenges due to isolation and distancing, this has been an opportunity for transformation. We have experienced an amazing coming together during this time, people of all diversities helping and reaching out to each other,” continues Underwood.

“In recent days, we have witnessed a horrific racist incident in the United States and shared the collective angry response to the racism and divisiveness all over the world, and we know that now is the time to make change. Prejudice, discrimination, and racism has to end. It’s time to really cast our differences aside, get to know each other, learn from each other, build relationships, create open, accepting, compassionate, caring and loving communities in which people of all diversities are equally valued. It starts with each of us.”

Red Deer welcomes several hundred new refugees annually. In 2019, Canada resettled approximately 30,000 refugees, four times as many as in 2015.