Follow the conversations and collaborations that happened in Hyderabad, India
World Refugee Day 2008
To commemorate World Refugee Day 2008, Ashoka recognizes the role of Ashoka Fellows who are empowering refugees and internally displaced people around the world to create new homes and new lives.
These Ashoka Fellows are representative of social entrepreneurs who are building communities, alleviating suffering, and integrating disenfranchised people into new countries, economies and cultures. Ashoka takes this opportunity to raise awareness of their ground-breaking approaches and relentless commitment to creating a more just and prosperous world for all.
These Ashoka Fellows are representative of social entrepreneurs who are building communities, alleviating suffering, and integrating disenfranchised people into new countries, economies and cultures. Ashoka takes this opportunity to raise awareness of their ground-breaking approaches and relentless commitment to creating a more just and prosperous world for all.
Isabel Coral, PeruCenter for Population Promotion and Development (CEPRODEP)
Learning from a career serving Peruvians internally displaced by Sendero Luminoso partisan violence, Isabel founded CEPRODEP to resettle these people in their home villages. Acknowledging the importance of rebuilding local infrastructure for resettlement success, CEPRODEP connects neighbors via “development committees” that reinvigorate civic participation and spur economic development. Isabel’s First Association of Displaced Families is a national network of more than 80,000 affiliates—including government agencies, citizen sector organizations and churches—who are quickly replicating and spreading Isabel’s model to others across the Andean region.
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Gerald Gray, United States
Institute for Redress and Recovery
A psychotherapist by trade, Gerald has counseled nearly 2000 survivors of torture from 80 countries. Upon learning that no system existed to track the many torturers who immigrated to the US and bring them to justice, Gerald developed interconnected projects in law, psychology, journalism and education to end the victimization and abuse of refugees fleeing torture. Gerald is now working with The Hague and the Rwandan Truth and Reconciliation Commission to ensure the end of impunity for torturers in the US.
Institute for Redress and Recovery
A psychotherapist by trade, Gerald has counseled nearly 2000 survivors of torture from 80 countries. Upon learning that no system existed to track the many torturers who immigrated to the US and bring them to justice, Gerald developed interconnected projects in law, psychology, journalism and education to end the victimization and abuse of refugees fleeing torture. Gerald is now working with The Hague and the Rwandan Truth and Reconciliation Commission to ensure the end of impunity for torturers in the US.
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Tuenjai Deetes, ThailandHill Area Development Foundation (HADF)
Commonly not citizens, Thailand’s rural tribes are often the neediest and least served people in the country. Witnessing this group’s displacement to urban slums as a result of eroding hillside fields and slash-and-burn agriculture, Tuenjai is countering this trend by offering these communities sustainable agriculture practices, health instruction and language classes to foster a strong sense of community identity. Her success has attracted support from the Education Ministry, who consider her education models stepping-stones for internally displaced children to enter government schools.
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Sri Kumar Vishwanathan, Czech RepublicRoma Coexistence Village
An educator and disaster relief worker in ex-Soviet states, Kumar is addressing severe housing problems in poor urban communities of the Czech Republic. Enduring forced relocations and extreme prejudice, the ethnic Roma people across the former Soviet Union have been isolated to slums and ghettos. Kumar designs ethnically-integrated neighborhoods—such as the pilot Roma Coexistence Village—to offer adequate housing and a replicable model for peaceful cohabitation between Roma and non-Roma. By placing responsibility for inclusive community projects in the hands of the poorest residents, residents overcome both poverty and prejudice.
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