Financial Assistance to EmPATHy

A debriefing session on the participation in the Annual Tripartite Conference on Third Country Resettlement (ATCR) hosted by UNHCR.

On July 26, 2023, FWEAP invited some representatives from EmPATHy (Empathetic Multicultural PATH with Youths, a registered NGO), to make a debriefing session on their participation in the "Annual Tripartite Consultation on Third Country Resettlement (ATCR) " hosted by UNHCR.

EmPATHy is an initiative of young people who have refugee backgrounds, living in Japan and studying at Japanese university. They started their programs in 2022. Their programs include "Youth UNHCR" for refugees who wish to study in Japan, "UNHCR Refugee Higher Education Program (RHEP)" for refugee youth who wish to study at Japanese universities, and "Syrian Peace Bridge and Human Resources Development Program (JISR) "for refugee students originally from Syria.

Upon the invitation from the UNHCR, EmPATHy decided to dispatch Mr. Muhammad Al-Masri, a Syrian national to the Annual Tripartite Consultations on Resettlement (ATCR) to be held in Geneva, Switzerland from June 26 to 28 of this year. Then the EmPATHy applied to FWEAP the financial assistance for Mr. Al-Masri's round-trip travel expenses between Tokyo and Geneva.

During the screening process for its financial assistance, FWEAP approved the application from EmPATHy by providing 273,000 yen in support of travel expenses of Mr. Al-Masri, as it was felt that having a refugee living in Japan participate in and make presentation at the international level (means ATCR) would contribute to get better understanding of refugee issues from both domestically and internationally.

The debriefing session was attended by a Co-Representative of EmPATHy, Ms. Rei Kanazawa, Mr. Al-Masri who gave a presentation at the ATCR, in which he introduced the efforts of the Japanese delegation, plus Mr. Harid Asaf as an interpreter.

Mr. Al-Masri said that during ATCR conference, the importance of the Refugee Advisory Group (RAG), which is a representative group of refugees originally from Syria, Iraq, Sudan, South Sudan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Vietnam, and other parts of the world, was acknowledged by ATCR saying that RAG’s initiative has strong influence on UNHCR’s policy decisions on resettlement and complementary protection. RAG appealed their position by saying, "Nothing about us without us" For instance, if you are working on Africa, hire at least one African person, so as, if you are working on refugee issues, hire a refugee...etc. (which means that “Don't decide about us without consulting with us”.)

After the reporting by Mr. Al-Masri, one of the Refugee Assistance Headquarters (RHQ) staff members who participated in this debriefing session said, "As a refugee myself, I feel a mission to support those who are in the same situation as me. I sympathize with Mr. Al-Masri's report.

The purpose of this debriefing session was to provide a training for the Foundation's staff members, but many other participants, including a staff from the UNHCR Representation in Japan Office, a secretariat member of Forum for Refugees in Japan, and board members of FWEAP who were in charge of reviewing financial assistance, became a good occasion for all of them to learn a great deal.