World Refugee Day 2003: Netherlands
World Refugee Day 2003: Netherlands
On June 20, UNHCR organised an event in the stadium of football club NEC in Nijmegen. Co-organisers included UNHCR's partner association, Join Media, and the Regional Education Centre (ROC), a network of schools in and around Nijmegen.
Six thousand students from the ROC and other schools attended the live filming of a video clip for a new song, "On the Run", about refugees by the famous rap group, Def P en de Onderhonden (Def P & the Underdogs). The stage for this film was a UNHCR tent in the middle of the football field. The clip also included some UNHCR footage.
The audience were invited to make their own rap on the track of Def P's song. This "chain rap" will be extended by school kids in future manifestations by Join Media and UNHCR, allowing visitors to express their ideas about refugees through music. Besides Def P, there were also be shows by Dutch pop idols Jim & Jamai, and Do.
copy; UNHCR/H.van Oort
During the show, large screens showed interviews with young refugees (taken from UNHCR's film, "Facing the Future") as well as interviews with students from ROC about refugees - some of them are themselves refugees - and a presentation by an NEC football player Youssouf Hersi, a refugee from Ethiopia.