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The 2011 celebration of World Refugee Day (WRD) is extra special for a couple reasons. Why? I’m so glad you asked

Firstly. . .

World Refugee Day (WRD) June 20th is the 60th Anniversary of the UN Refugee Convention which is our international legislative framework guiding our response to refugees.

Occupational therapy asserts that enabling participation in daily occupations and life roles is the very practical cornerstone makes real the rights and responsibilities enshrined in the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.

Furthermore, without enabling participation in daily occupations and life roles, it’s impossible to realize the vision for World Refugee Day 2010:

Refugees have been deprived of their home, but they must not be deprived of their futures! Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

Secondly. . .

2011 is also the very first year occupational therapists globally are invited to celebrate World Refugee Day (WRD) with an online event!

Occupational Opportunities for Refugees & Asylum Seekers Inc (OOFRAS) is pleased to host OTs Celebrating World Refugee Day – or OT WRD for short! Our vision is:

That people with refugee experiences can participate in daily occupations, life roles, and community; can access occupational therapy services as needed, and build occupationally just communities.

Hopefully OT WRD is a fun and valuable way to support OTs in their practice with refugees – so that people with refugee experiences can expect more and better occupational therapy services.

Look forward to your participation online in OT WRD. We also look forward to your feedback so we can all learn from this first event!

In the meantime please comment below to tell us what’s happening for WRD locally! Here’s an international snapshot WRD last year.