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An historic event is coming up, and we invite you to join and support it. At the Rio 2016 Olympics, for the first time ever, a team will represent those women, men, boys and girls displaced from their homes by crisis. The World Council of Churches (WCC) encourages all people and churches to cheer on the strongly symbolic Refugee Olympic Team, a group of ten top-tier athletes from around the globe.
To give your support, “join the team” before the opening ceremony on 5 August, and make these incredible athletes’ dreams come true. Fans from across the globe will be posting selfies of themselves in action (as they do things like holding a sign saying ‘I’m with #TeamRefugees’) during the weeks before and during the Olympics. Follow the example of WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, who will post a photo showing his support for the team on social media, using the campaign hashtag #TeamRefugees.
Un-owned by any nation, and detached from all political debate, the 2016 Refugee Olympic Team provides an unprecedented opportunity to tell a refugee story the world can rally behind.
With global attention fixed on the games, UNICEF, UNHCR and other partners including WCC, ONE, Global Citizen, Sesame Street, Save the Children, International Rescue Committee, and celebrity ambassadors are building the global fan club: Team Refugees.
While the main goal of this campaign is to build solidarity with refugees throughout the world, cheering for the team will also help these athletes, who have been scattered across the globe, to feel encouragement and thus increase their chance of winning.
WCC work on Migration and social justice
Learn more about Team Refugees
Refugee Olympic team to shine spotlight on worldwide refugee crisis
