Sunday, June 24, 2007
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The City of Cape Town has urged refugees to join local community forums and become more actively involved in decisions that affect them."Refugees must encourage locals to talk to them and not about them," Councillor JP Smith, Chairperson of the Good Hope Sub-Council, told a World Refugee Day youth celebration in Cape Town on Saturday.
In a statement the city said that over 700 youth, between the ages of 10 and 25, attended the celebration at the Good Hope Centre.
Refugee youth were from countries such as Bulgaria, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Pakistan, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
Members of the Junior City Council of Cape Town, and other local youth also took part in the programme, which included drama, poetry, song, dance and sports.
"This year's theme is 'The Unheard Voices of Refugee Children' and the aim of this event was to facilitate integration between refugee youth and local youth in a fun, interactive programme," said Kemal Omar, manager of inter-governmental relations for the City of Cape Town.
Source: sapa, June 24, 2007