São Paulo – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) launched last week a campaign in the Americas that will collect toys for Syrian children refugees that live in Jordan. Brazil will take part and will promote actions in the months of June and August, according to UNHCR’s spokesperson in the country, Luiz Fernando Godinho.
The motto of the campaign is “Around the World in a Backpack”, since a giant backpack will go through the countries involved to collect toys. The backpack was manufactured by Totto, a Colombian company that produces bags and purses. It will start the trip in Bogota, on June 20th, World Refugee Day, and make stops in Venezuela, Panama, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina and United States.
The campaign was created by the Colombian advertising agency Sancho BBDO. Besides the backpack and its trip, each country involved will have its own backpack to fill with toys. The actions should differ from each other in each country.
In Brazil, on June 19th, the eve of Refugee Day, the backpack made for the country will be in a public school in Rio de Janeiro. It will receive 400 dolls manufactured by the Brazilian company Com Lola. The children of the school will put the finishing touches in the dolls before turning them in. Half the toys will go for Syrians in Jordan and the other half will be sent to refugees living in Brazil. The children in the Rio de Janeiro public school will watch a lecture about refugees.
Another similar action will take place when the main backpack arrives in Brazil, at the end of the first week of August, according to Godinho. It will come from Costa Rica, stay a week in Brazil and depart to Argentina. A yet to be scheduled event will take place in Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo during the period. Each country is organizing the campaign their way, but in Brazil, for now, the toys will be new, donated by companies, and not collected from the general public.
The goal of the campaign is not only collecting the toys, but also creating an empathy with the population of refugees and calling attention for the situation of the children. “It’s the most dramatic face of the humanitarian impact of wars and conflicts”, says Godinho, remarking that the children lose their references, their families and school networks and live through a complicated situation, of uncertainty, which has a huge impact in their lives.
A lot of these children end up uncared for due to the conflicts, with the loss of family members by death or separation in the moment of escape. “But they also display great readjustment skills”, he says.
A UNHCR research shows that more than half of the world’s refugee population of 50 million people is made of children or youngsters up to 18 years. From the 628,000 Syrians that live in refugee camps, 35% also have this profile.
Further information:
http://www.acnur.org (in Spanish)
Hashtag: #mochilaviajante
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
