How do people become refugees?
Today, there are an estimated 35.3 million refugees worldwide. Someone is a refugee if they have fled their home country to escape conflict, violence, or persecution and have sought safety in another country.
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Who are the IOC Refugee Olympic Team?
The 2024 Paris Olympics are just around the corner, but how much do you know about the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Refugee Team?
The team represents more than 100 million forcibly displaced people worldwide. Hailing from 11 different countries, including 14 from Iran, and five each from Afghanistan and Syria. The 36 athletes will compete across 12 sports and are hosted by 15 National Olympic Committees.
To join the team, athletes must be considered elite competitors in the sport they chose to take part in and be refugees in their host country, verified by UNCHR, the UN Refugee Agency. The range of sports and gender are also taken into consideration, as well as the spread of countries of origin.
The Refugee Olympic Team are an important symbol of hope for those displaced by conflict.
Dijda* (20) in her kitchen area in refugee camp in Eastern Chad. Dijda* received kitchen items from Concern Worldwide, aswell as a mattress and blankets. Photo: Eugene Ikua/Concern Worldwide
How did the refugee team begin?
2024 will be the third Olympics that the IOC Refugee Team have competed in. The team have previously competed at Rio in 2016 and Tokyo in 2020. The Paris team will be the largest-ever Refugee Olympic team and the athletes are aiming to win their first medal.
The team was created in 2016 by IOC President, Thomas Bach, as a symbol of hope for all refugees in the world to raise global awareness of the scale of the migrant crisis in Europe.
Who is in the team this year?
This year the team are taking on sports from judo and swimming to canoe slalom and athletics. Among them, five athletes are being hosted by the United Kingdom National Olympic Committee.
The athletes hail from Afghanistan, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cuba, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Venezuela.
Rose Nathike represented the Refugee Team at both the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics. At the age of 10, she fled a civil war in South Sudan with her family, walking to the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya after armed militias invaded her village.
Nathike made history at the Rio 2016 Olympics by competing in the 800m event and serving as the flagbearer for the inaugural IOC Refugee Olympic Team.
Her athletic talent was first discovered while she ran barefoot in the refugee camp, leading her to start participating in organised running competitions in 2015.
Despite spending a further nine months in the camp after her training facilities were closed during the Covid-19 pandemic, Nathike remained positive. “Being a refugee is just a status and being a refugee doesn’t mean your life ends there. As long as you do what is right for you, you can achieve whatever you want.”
More people need access to sporting opportunities
It’s difficult to enter the sporting arena without connections and wider knowledge of the space. Sport can make dreams a reality, however, to ensure widespread access and long-term change there needs to be a bigger effort to integrate activities with other development approaches and programming.
The Refugee Olympic Foundation supports athletes through the Refugee Athlete Scholarship Programme. The Foundation has supported over 400,000 young people being able to access safe sport and more than 1,600 coaches have been trained in delivering safe sport sessions.
How Concern uses sport to encourage learning
Concern’s Skillz Programme uses the medium of football to teach life skills, gender equality, hygiene skills and life goals to the students. We train the coaches for the programme and supply equipment such as footballs.
Mwanza Primary School in Nchalo has 19 teachers (12 male and 7 female) for 1,455 students, ranging from 10-16 years. Its Skillz Programme initiative has been implemented with the help of Concern. The programme uses the medium of soccer to teach life skills, gender equality, hygiene skills and life goals to the students.
Concern provides the coach-training for the programme, and also supplies the soccer balls for implementation.
Christina Kamangira (15) is a student at the school. She loves being part of the Skillz Programme. "I have learnt about what I love – cooking, playing and lots more. I have learnt a lot of things that I did not know, including how to make sanitary pads and use them, and how to take care of myself during menstruation”
The Skillz Programme started at Mwanza Primary School in 2017, and there over 50 participants from 5th-8th class who take part. There is one session per week, and in each session, there is a key message of the day. Ranken tells us there are usually two coaches per school, one male and one female, but for the moment, Mwanza Primary School has just one male head coach - Aubrey Kanawa.
Photo: Jason Kennedy / Concern Worldwide.
Christina, a student taking part in our Skillz Programme, aged 15 told us,
“I love being part of the Skillz Programme. I have learnt about what I love – cooking, playing and lots more. I have learnt a lot of things that I did not know, including how to make sanitary pads and use them, and how to take care of myself during menstruation”
She also told us that she wants to finish school and become independent.
