Every year World Refugee Day seeks to focus global attention on the challenges faced by the world’s refugees, which today are estimated to total 20.8 million. Many of them have fled their countries due to civil wars and ethnic, tribal and religious violence and cannot return home.

The official global theme of World Refugee Day 2007 was 'Help them learn. Help them play', reflecting the campaign led by the UN Refugee Agency - UNHCR - to use education and sport to help refugee children, of whom there are an estimated nine million, rebuild their lives.

This innovative campaign, entitled ninemillion.org, aims to raise awareness and funds for education and sports programmes for young refugees. Education, play and sport in refugee camps engage children in positive activities that give them hope and provide vital life tools which can be used to rebuild lives and regain a sense of normalcy and structure in their daily lives. To deliver the aims of ninemillion.org, UNHCR works with a range of partners, including Canadian NGO Right To Play and Nike.

Refugee Youth: Using Sport to Bridge the Divide

To mark this year's World Refugee Day, YPN again partnered UNHCR to host the UK’s headline event. The event, entitled 'Refugee Youth: Using Sport to Bridge the Divide', aimed to highlight the role that sport can and does play in rebuilding the lives of young refugees. A keynote speech was given by Bemma Donkah, Head of UNHCR in the UK. You can read her speech by clicking here. She was joined on stage by Katie Hatfield of the NGO Right to Play and Mandy Ayres of Nike. You can listen to an audio recording of the event online (part one; part two) - but you will first need to download the free application RealPlayer.