Refugee Week 2024: Seminar 1

Register here

Waging Peace - ‘The Children’s Drawings’ – book discussion

Accurate and devastating depictions of life in Sudan during its current and past wars appear in a book of children’s drawings recently published, titled 'The Children's Drawings'. This book has been produced by the Sudan-focused human rights charity Waging Peace.

Waging Peace has collected hundreds of pictures drawn by children who have survived genocide and mass atrocities in Sudan, a sample of which are collected and reproduced in this book. 

Waging Peace collected the pictures in Darfuri refugee camps in Chad in 2007; Nuba refugee camps in South Sudan in 2018; with one additional image showing the results of a massacre in the capital city of Khartoum during Sudan's 2018-2019 revolution. The International Criminal Court has accepted the children's drawings as contextual evidence of genocide in Darfur. 

Waging Peace’s Co-Executive Director, Sonja Miley says,

“The drawings serve a special purpose in shining a light on what Sudanese young people have endured for generations. We hope that by bringing these drawings to light, we can focus the world’s attention on the continuing bloodshed in Sudan. The daily horror faced by Sudanese civilians has been below the radar for years, even though the number of casualties equal those in other war zones.”

“The plight of Sudan’s children deserves action from decision-makers. The international community must put sustained and coordinated pressure on the outside parties who are fuelling the conflict and supplying weapons.”

Bárbara Oliveira – Private Sponsorship of Refugees 

The Portuguese Refugee Council (CPR) is a non-governmental organization for development that has defended and promoted the right to international protection in Portugal since 1991. Guided by the values of diversity and humanitarianism, CPR is closely involved with the refugees and asylum seekers in Portugal with the aim of enhancing inclusion processes and contributing towards a more harmonious and cohesive society.
 
Since 2021, CPR has been dedicated to establishing the first community sponsorship program in Portugal, while exploring a myriad of complementary pathways in the country, contributing to the establishment of more safe routes for those who are most vulnerable. Nowadays, community sponsorship in particular also appears as a beacon of civic participation, contributing actively towards more cohesive, inclusive and resilient communities, all the while countering misinformation about the topic of migration and refugees.