A new student organization, No Lost Generation, recently emerged at DU. The organization focuses on the impact of recent refugee crises. According to Kia John, second year graduate student and Vice President of DU’s No Lost Generation chapter, the organization hopes to increase the outreach and the awareness of refugees and their problems through organizing screenings, discussion events and fundraising on campus.
Recently, the Obama Administration announced plans to increase the amount of overall refugees the U.S. will take for 2017, which is up to 110,000. According to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) there are, worldwide, 21.3 million refugees. Nader Hashemi, the director of the Center of Middle East Studies at DU, argues that without the conflict in Syria, the refugee crisis would not be as dramatic as what we are experiencing now.
“Some people are saying, with respect to Europe, it’s the worst refugee crisis that Europe has seen since World War II,” said Hashemi.
Vanessa Jacobsen, a senior at DU, collected insight on the topic while studying abroad last fall in Jordan. Jacobsen spoke of a huge refugee camp in Northern Jordan, up in Zaatari. It is estimated that about 80,000 refugees live there.
“It’s not even a camp anymore, it’s a real city,” said Jacobsen.
Recently, about 1.4 million Syrian refugees arrived in Jordan. The country’s national resources are limited. According to Jacobsen and the National Academy of Sciences, water is a big concern, even for drinking or showering.
Schools are facing adjustments to the increase in population as well.
“Jordanian kids go to school in the morning and then the Syrian children go to school in the evening, so the schools are used all day long and the teachers have to do double or triple shifts,” said Jacobsen.
“Refugee Rock the Vote was a volunteer opportunity for our members. They went to a school in Aurora and helped register refugees to vote for the upcoming election. Other opportunities that we offer are volunteering through local organizations to teach English to refugees or to mentor them on life skills they might need as newly arrived refugees,” John said.
To get in touch with No Lost Generation, they can be contacted via Facebook.
