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WCC Executive Committee visits a refugee camp in Jordan, in 2017. Photo: Marianne Ejdersten/WCC

WCC Executive Committee visits a refugee camp in Jordan, in 2017. Photo: Marianne Ejdersten/WCC

To mark the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, sport demonstrations, cultural activities, and a #whitecard torch relay, with which the World Council of Churches (WCC) and some of its partner organizations are linked, will be held in Za’atari Refugee Camp in Jordan on 6 April.

The event is in solidarity with two global compacts relating to the management of refugees and migrants, whose numbers in the 21st century have reached unprecedented highs and it is part of the #WithRefugees World Tour of which the WCC is very much a part.

“Refugees are those forced flee or leave their homes and we in the churches must take responsibility for human beings in desperate need without discrimination on any criteria other than their needs irrespective of from where they come,” said WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.

In 2018 world leaders will come to the United Nations to agree on a more just way of managing the global refugee crisis. This agreement, called The Global Compact for Refugees is all about sharing responsibility; where all parts of society stand together #WithRefugees and do their fair share instead of leaving individual states to bear the burden of mass forced displacement.

The WCC, ACT Alliance and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) are among ecumenical organizations linked to the #WithRefugees World Tour and supporting those two global compacts which aim to manage better the lives of those moving away from their homes.

The campaign will continue until the Global Compact on refugees is adopted.

The second event will be the RefuSHE Fashion Show in Chicago, United States in the United State when nine of the city’s designers will debut original runway looks highlighting RefuSHE’s artisan-made fabric created in Nairobi, Kenya by refugees.

A few days later the Danish capital Copenhagen will hold the “The Other One Percent” Photo Exhibit that tells the stories of refugee students in Kenya, Jordan, Rwanda and Senegal who either benefit from a DAFI scholarship or are enrolled in Connected Learning programmes.

Other exhibitions will take place later in Berlin in Germany, Saskatoon in Canada, Cannes in France, Oslo in Norway, multiple locations in Brazil, Washington DC, Valetta in Malta, Paris in France, the Irish capital Dublin, London England, South Africa and other parts of the world.

Between 8 and 17 June the exhibition will move to Kakuma in north-western Kenya where the LWF is the longest serving and biggest implementing partner for the UN Refugee Agency, at the Kakuma Refugee Camp.

At a date to be determined in September the exhibition moves to the WCC where Combatting Xenophobia, Nationalism and Populism will be discussed along with how these impact on the refugee crisis and the life of refugees worldwide.

From 24-26 September the exhibition moves to the Concordia Annual Summit in New York City as the largest nonpartisan convening on the side-lines of the UN General Assembly.

The summit will host inclusive and action-driven discussions on addressing the refugee crisis with high-level representatives from across the public, private, and non-profit sectors, where the WCC and its ecumenical partners play a key role.

The #WithRefugees World Tour

Video: A Journey of Solidarity - #WithRefugees World Tour