Share YOUR story

Are you a refugee? Have you worked with refugees or asylum-seekers? If you have professional, scholarly, or personal experience with refugee issues, share your story here! Please post a response to this thread.

Keep in touch over break!

Thanks for joining STAR at the Afghan Kitchen in Islington! We hope you enjoyed the food and conversation. Learn more about Afghan refugees on the UNHCR website here (general site) and here ('Return to Afghanistan' site). Afghans remain the largest refugee group in the world. Nearly two million Afghan refugees reside in Pakistan and Iran, according to the UNHCR.

Enjoy the holiday break and see you in January. We encourage you to keep posting to the blog. (Remember: 18 December is International Migrants Day!)

Volunteering update

For those of you who attended the collective volunteering on Wednesday 23 and/or 30 November, please write to us at Su.Soc.Action-For-Refugees@lse.ac.uk with your:


-Name
-Day you volunteered
-If you intend to continue throughout the year
-Any additional feedback, comments . . .
We need to send your details to King's STAR coorindator. He will contact you directly with information about the next session and plans for a one-on-one mentoring scheme Lent term.

>>Anyone who didn't make it the last couple of weeks but really wants to get involved? If you can commit for a couple of hours on a weekly basis, please let us know.

Please join us for a holiday dinner

We hope you are enjoying your last weekend before the holiday break! A couple of quick announcements:

-We will meet for the holiday dinner (at an Afghan restaurant) on Thursday, 8 December! The meeting point is at 6:30pm in front of the Old Building. Please post to the blog or send us an e-mail if you plan to join us so we'll know how many people to expect.

-Warm thanks to all of you who kindly responded to the STAR survey. It was quite helpful and your input will certainly be taken into consideration.

Refugee rights are human rights!

Join us to commemorate Human Rights Day! Human Rights Day is 10 December and marks the UN General Assembly's adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948. The UDHR has become the universal standard for defending and promoting international human rights. LSE's Amnesty International, UNICEF, Student Action for Refugees (STAR) and Film societies have teamed up with the MSc Human Rights Student Committee to screen two human rights-related documentaries week ten -- read on for details . . . (see the 'comments' thread below for additional events!)

WED, 7 DEC SCREENING
'S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine'
WHAT: This award-winning new documentary is about the Cambodian genocide from 1975-79, when nearly two million Cambodians lost their lives to murder and famine. The notorious 'S21' was a schoolhouse-turned-prison where 17,000 men, women and children were tortured and killed, their "crimes" meticulously documented to justify their execution.
WHEN: 7 Dec 2005, 6.30pm
WHERE: LSE's Hong Kong Theatre, D1
This is a free educational event open to LSE staff and students
>>Learn more here

FRI, 9 DEC SCREENING
'Born into Brothels'
WHAT: A tribute to the resiliency of childhood and the restorative power of art, this documentary is a portrait of several unforgettable children who live in the red light district of Calcutta, where their mothers work as prostitutes. Photographer Zana Briski gives each of the children a camera and teaches them to look at the world with new eyes.
WHEN: 9 Dec 2005, 5pm
WHERE: LSE's New Theatre, E171
This is a free educational event open to LSE staff and students
>>Learn more here

>>READ THE UDHR HERE