RESPECT is committed to raising awareness among international youth about refugees and refugee issues, encouraging activism among youth and further empowering refugee children and communities through letter and cultural exchange and providing educational courses on international cooperation and NGO related issues. We work also intensively in capacity building, increasing the skills and knowledge of local NGOs and volunteers in developing countries.

Raising Awareness- Global Letter Exchange Program

Our main project is to introduce refugee and non-refugee students through our pen-pal letter exchange program. We receive letters from refugee students which we then forward to a non-refugee school. The students then reply to the letters, and new friendships are born.

RESPECT has developed an ever-growing list of working relationships with schools servicing refugee, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and otherwise war-affected youth from around the world. Countries include Sierra Leone, Guinea, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.RESPECT introduces class to a class of refugee students of similar age and academic level. Letter exchange can be conducted as a class, or a club activity. Since the start of the project, RESPECT introduced over 3 000 refugee students to non-refugee students around the world.

Exchanging letters with refugee students is very powerful. RESPECT hopes the experience will be personal, educational and inspirational.This project is the basis for a later on further collaboration between schools. When kids have been partnering for a certain time with their refugee penpals, they turn out to other types of collaboration, and for example many schools start sending books, school materials or even computers.

International campaigns to raise awareness on refugee issues

Partnering with different NGOs and European associations, RESPECT is creating and distributing booklets, posters, leaflets and other PR materials in schools, youth associations and universities to raise awareness on refugee issues. We participate also in european wide projects to promote Human Rights, Refugees awareness and international cooperation activities.

RESPECT University

RESPECT University facilitates educational opportunities for post-secondary school refugee students, using the services of qualified tutors worldwide. Tutors work with five to six refugee students per course in a wide range of subjects, using both postal services for correspondence. Courses take about a year to complete, with students receiving diplomas and individual references on successful fulfillment. The students are selected by RESPECT local Coordinators as being those most enthusiastic and likely to benefit from the programs.

ICT and Education FOR DEVELOPMENT

Refugees’ daily situation is very complicated and so it is the role of the organisations and individuals working to ease their living conditions. On this background it is evident as it is essential, for a smooth management of all related support projects, to be sure that knowledge and refugee rights are well known and respected.

To this end an important role is played by the Civil Society Organisations and NGOs, as well as individuals, dealing with migration and refugees. During their activity, especially in refugees camps, CSOs and humanitarian workers need to acquire an important understanding on Refugee management. For this reason we develop online training on refugee-related topics, development and health issues, accesible from our elearning section as self-study courses.