VOICES OF COURAGE AWARDS 2011

“Urban Refugees”

Accepting Nominations for Honorees
Looking for Refugee Leaders
Deadline: December 15, 2010

Each year, the Women’s Refugee Commission honors individual refugee, internally displaced and asylum-seeking women and young people who are working on behalf of their peers. We are now seeking candidates to be honored at our Voices of Courage Awards luncheon on May 3, 2011.

In 2011, we will honor refugee, internally displaced or asylum-seeking women or youth who are developing or leading programs that benefit displaced or asylum-seeking people living in urban areas. In urban settings, displacement places extra stress on urban services and resources, with displaced populations and existing urban dwellers sharing densely populated and poorly serviced environments. Urban refugees are constrained by their limited assets, support networks and lack of appropriate job skills, in addition to legal, cultural and linguistic barriers to establishing sustainable livelihoods. Too often, women and girls have little alternative other than to engage in harmful strategies to earn money to support their families, such as survival sex, or to join the informal economy, where they face extortion, exploitation and abuse. Young people are often not in school and cannot find work, leading to rising crime rates and insecurity.

With more than 50 percent of the world’s refugees are now living in cities, and with limited humanitarian assistance directed to urban refugees, the Women’s Refugee Commission wishes to recognize outstanding individuals supporting this often neglected population. Some examples of projects honorees might be undertaking:

  • Developing a reproductive health response that helps reduce the incidence of maternal mortality
  • Pioneering an alternative to detention to improve asylum practice
  • Finding a way to promote refugee-owned businesses so that refugees can safely earn a living
  • Innovating refugee savings groups to increase access to emergency cash and money to start a business
  • Adapting vocational training programs for displaced young people with disabilities
  • Your nominee’s project here!

Two refugee, internally displaced or asylum-seeking women or young people (up to age 30) will be selected to receive the Voices of Courage Award. The 2011 Voices of Courage honorees’ organizations will each receive a $5,000 grant from the Women’s Refugee Commission to further their critical work to benefit displaced people in their communities. We will feature descriptions of the honorees’ programs in our luncheon journal.

Candidate criteria:

  • Candidates may live in the United States or overseas.
  • Candidates should be current or former refugees, internally displaced women or young people or asylum-seekers who have developed or implemented successful programs that serve people displaced by conflict or seeking asylum in urban areas.
  • Candidates should be passionate advocates for improving the lives and protecting the rights of refugee and internally displaced women, children and young people.
  • Candidates must be able to travel to New York for a week in May (the luncheon is Tuesday, May 3, 2011) to accept their award (all travel and housing expenses will be paid).
  • Candidates must be willing to participate in media interviews.
  • The ability to speak English is preferred.

To nominate a candidate for a Voices of Courage award, please send: 1) a letter of nomination that details the program and tells the story of the nominee; 2) the curriculum vitae, résumé or biography of the nominee; and 3) the names and email/phone/fax of three references.

If you email your nomination, please include all the information in a single attachment or include it in the body of the email. Include the name of the nominee in the subject of the email.

Please do not send any additional materials (photos, etc.) as they will not be considered.

Please email your nomination by December 15, 2010 to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . You may also fax the nomination to +1.212.551.3180 or mail to: Women’s Refugee Commission, Attn: Voices of Courage Nominees, 122 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10168-1289, USA.

PLEASE NOTE: We can only consider nominations that are written in English.

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