UNHCR launches 27th Annual Student Contest: “We are all on the same team”

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is launching its 27th annual national Student Contest for the 2023-2024 school year on the theme “We are all on the same team”. This year’s contest invites children to express their creative views on the transformative power of sports in changing people’s lives and communities around the world.

Sport, recognized as a fundamental human right, not only contributes to physical and mental health, but also serves as a powerful catalyst for social cohesion, sustainable development and peace. For forcibly displaced people, particularly refugee children and youth, sport becomes a tool to overcome traumatic experiences and integrate into their new societies. It helps foster empowerment and inclusion, especially for athletes with disabilities, motivating people to work towards a common goal and creating a sense of belonging.

From the sports clubs established by refugees from Asia Minor, to the modern Refugee Olympic and Paralympic Teams, and the participation of many refugee players and athletes in famous sports clubs worldwide, sport has proved it can inspire the values of equality, teambuilding, fairness and respect, showing in practice how the world can embrace refugees.

UNHCR’s 27th Student Contest calls on students at all school levels (Kindergarten, Primary School, Junior High School, High School), including refugee students attending reception classes and non-formal education centres, to get informed, exchange views and express creatively their messages through sketches, posters or comics. Children can share their personal experiences, ideas and suggestions on how participation in recreational and physical activities and in organized individual or team sports can bring people together and reinforce fundamental human values.

Entries to the Contest can be submitted online until 23 February 2024 by class teachers or school principals through this webpage: https://www.unhcr.org/gr/student-contest-23 

Α special committee will assess all entries based on their originality and creativity and will award one entry per school level. The committee consists of representatives from the Hellenic Olympic Committee, the Hellenic Theatre/Drama and Education Network, the Network for Children’s Rights, UNRIC – the UN Regional Information Centre (Office for Greece), Athens Comics Library and UNHCR. In addition, Sofia Bekatorou, double Olympic medalist, Ibrahim Al Hussein, Paralympic athlete from Syria and Popi Kyrdi, teacher and head of the Cultural Programmes at the Primary Education Directorate of A’ Athens, will take part in the evaluation process.

Awarded entries will receive gifts related to sport (ethically manufactured footballs and activity trackers) while all participants will receive commemorative diplomas for their participation. UNHCR and committee members will publicize the awarded works on their digital platforms.

More information about the rules and conditions of participation in the Contest are available here.

Greek