From December 9 to 13, 2024, three students from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, University of Opole, and University of Jyväskylä had the opportunity to participate in the FORTHEM Volunteering Programme with the Spanish Committee of UNHCR (EACNUR) hosted by the University of Valencia. This programme is possible thanks to the collaboration with SEDI, the Information and Dynamisation Service of the University of Valencia.
On the first day of the exchange, the participants took part in a training session led by the EACNUR team, providing them with the essential tools to create their own awareness-raising and activism campaigns in support of refugees' human rights.
In the following days, the students designed their campaigns with guidance from the EACNUR team through a collaborative and creative process. As a result, they launched "Voices of the Forgotten," a hybrid campaign (both face-to-face and online) aimed at raising awareness of the plight of over one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
At the University of Valencia’s Faculty of Law, they set up an awareness stand in the lobby, asking the university community, "What would you buy with 27 cents a day?" The aim was to shed light on the harsh reality faced by the Rohingya refugees, who survive on this small amount due to limited resources in the refugee camps.
Simultaneously, they created an Instagram account for the project, designing a social media campaign that included infographics, informational carousels, and videos produced by the students themselves.
The programme concluded on Friday with a closing session, during which participants shared their outcomes and had the opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences with other volunteers from the University of Valencia.
