World Vision Australia is calling for people to donate a teddy bear to a child refugee in an initiative which aims to shine a light on the plight of thousands of unaccompanied children forced to flee violence in South Sudan.
World Vision staff last year recorded as a many as 100 unaccompanied children a day arriving at camps in northern Uganda, among the hundreds of thousands fleeing conflict in neighbouring South Sudan.
BEARS ON STAIRS: The many bears placed on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral in London in an event last year. PICTURE: Supplied.
Under the World Vision Australia ‘Bears on Stairs’ initiative, people are being asked to donate teddy bears to be displayed en masse at St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne on 13th February in a bid to raise awareness about the plight of refugees around the globe, in particular that of unaccompanied children. The bears will then be given to child refugees already in Australia via the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.
Adam Valvasori, a World Vision Australia staff member who is organising the event, said it would be a visual reminder for people of what the 22.5 million refugees around the world – about half of whom are children – are facing.
“One of our challenges is that the debate about refugees is so toxic in Australia – it’s so divisive and centred around a very small fraction of the overall refugee population…” he said. “A very small fraction of those try to come to Australia, and a small fraction of those might try to come by boat and we’re just obsessed by that. It just derails the bigger picture…”
This “bigger picture” includes the more than one million refugees which have crossed from South Sudan into Uganda since mid-2016 – a figure more than Australia’s entire refugee intake since World War II. The UN warned last week that the refugee crisis caused by the conflict in South Sudan was set to become Africa’s biggest refugee crisis.
The idea of using teddy bears to shine a spotlight on the issue of refugees is based on a similar initiative used by World Vision in the UK last year which involved putting bears on the steps of London’s St Paul’s Cathedral.
FINDING COMFORT: A child refugee – Angelina – with a teddy bear in Uganda. PICTURE: Supplied.
Mr Valvasori said for the Australian initiative, they thought it a good idea to time the event around St Valentine’s Day, asking people to consider buying a teddy bear for a refugee child instead of their romantic love this year.
“Each bear will represent a child who was forced to flee conflict and cross the border into Uganda without their parents,” he said.
When Sight spoke to World Vision this week, more than 200 teddy bears had already been donated.
As part of its Campaign for Refugees, World Vision Australia is calling on the Australian Government to increase its annual humanitarian intake of refugees to 42,000 people – double the current level – and increase Australia’s foreign aid budget so more money can be used to help refugees around the world.
People wanting to donate a teddy bear to the initiative can drop them off in the lead-up to the event at St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne or at World Vision Australia’s head office in Burwood East. They can also bring them to the event at St Paul’s Cathedral on 13th February which kicks off at 12.30pm.
For more information, head to www.facebook.com/WorldVisionAustralia/events/.
