Durable Solutions for Refugees

HIRES is a pilot initiative that resettles refugee youth who currently live in Kenya through a unique private sponsorship pathway that partners with Canadian businesses. This pathway involves vocational training and an employment placement upon arrival. Both, responding to persistent barriers to economic inclusion facing refugee populations and supporting Canadian employers to meet labour market…

How successful referendums across Canadian campuses are creating opportunities for young refugees to access post-secondary education

In response to COVID-19, the Government of Kenya, much like other governments around the world, initiated lockdowns of businesses and schools and implemented curfews to help curb transmission. Despite these measures, in just a few weeks, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Kenya almost doubled, bringing the total at the time of writing to…

All of Gabriel Ndayishimiye’s hard work over the past few years has recently paid off. This summer, he graduates with a B.A. Honours degree in globalization studies from Huron University in London, Ontario. Originally from Rwanda, Gabriel came to Canada in 2016 through the Student Refugee Program. He will be attending Columbia University in September…

Risk to Girls’ education and safety during COVID-19 The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about widespread lockdowns and school closures around the world, including in Kenya, where more than 2,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed.  In a country where 1.2 million primary-school-age children were already out of school before the crisis hit, these closures have…

In November 2019, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and WUSC (World University Service of Canada) brought together stakeholders with an identified interest or active engagement in developing education opportunities for refugees as complementary pathways for admission in third countries. The two-day international conference…

In 2019, the Inter-Agency Network on Education in Emergencies (INEE) released a new Gender Guidance Note, a document designed to equip policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and civil society organisations with the knowledge and tools to deliver education that is relevant to the needs of girls and boys. This Guidance Note is tailored to people working in…

Today marks the start of the first-ever Global Refugee Forum (GRF), hosted by the UNHCR. The Forum takes place at a crucial time, when the refugee population is higher than it has ever been, at over 25 million worldwide. In the last decade, the global population of forcibly displaced people has grown from 43.3 million…

WUSC’s Student Refugee Program (SRP) transforms the lives of many — especially formerly sponsored students. After their studies, formerly sponsored students (or SRP alumni as they are known) have gone on to do many diverse things in Canada and globally. These range from ordinary — working and supporting a family — to extraordinary — playing…

By: Arianne Leclerc, Local Committee alum, and Rhoda Philip, SRP alum Recently, WUSC representatives took part in the second annual event: Engaging Student Voices to Support the Global Compacts, held by the University Alliance for Refugees and at Risk Migrants UARRM at the George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. Student leaders, policy makers, practitioners, and post-secondary education leaders came…