Challenges & Conclusion

Challenges 

With all the goodwill provided by enthusiastic volunteers, serious challenges remain that impede an effective and impactful response to the refugee challenge.

• Corporations and their volunteers are lacking a common framework to help assess the needs of the refugees. It would be helpful to know where to “plug in”.
• It would also be helpful to be able to link corporate volunteer platforms so that opportunities, needs and best practices are shared between companies.
• Companies find it hard to collaborate and work together, not for lack of interest or desire but collaborations require the commitment of extra time and energy, especially in the initial stages.
• There is a need to be able to stop and evaluate if the assistance corporations and their volunteers are providing is helpful. But in an environment with urgent needs, how can this be done? How do we measure the impact of our efforts?
• At times political agendas, stereotypes and misconceptions will impede the work of helping refugees with both their immediate needs and long term integration.

Conclusion 

Forum participants discussed what success would ultimately look like. What could be the result of all these corporate and volunteer efforts? The response: “A measure of success of our work would be the dropping of the ‘refugee’ label – by the displaced persons themselves and by others in the community they join”.

Others felt there was relevance in the following:

“… Our planet is only a small star in space. It is our duty, to transform it into a planet whose creatures are no longer tormented by war, hunger and fear, no longer senselessly divided by race, color and ideology. Give us the courage and strength to begin this task today so that our children and children’s children shall one day carry the name of man with pride.”

From The Prayer of the United Nations