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foni Joyce is a refugee from South Sudan

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phony thank you for joining us the

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United Nations estimated that there were

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20 million refugees worldwide at the end

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of last year we often hear such macro

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level statistics but it is the more

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personal stories that can resonate and

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bring about awareness and change can you

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please tell us more about your own

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experience as a refugee thank you so

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much as you've said my name is Wendy

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Joyce I was born in Sudan but originally

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from South Sudan my parents fled our

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country in 1981 due to war and they had

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to like take a long walk from South

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Sudan into Uganda before they made it to

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Kenya and it was one of those

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experiences you were literally running

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for your life because my father was a

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journalist yeah and there were people

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pursuing him because they believed there

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was an informant and he literally had to

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take a long walk to just survive make

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sure his family safe and he ended up in

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Nairobi where we stay currently with my

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siblings and my mother we are speaking

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ahead of the UN General Assembly

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high-level plenary meeting on addressing

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large movements of refugees and migrants

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to be held September 19th 2016 this will

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serve as a key forum for member states

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to determine a plan to meet refugees

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immediate humanitarian and longer-term

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development needs how can the outcome of

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this summit make a difference for people

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like you and your family the outcome of

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this summit plays a vital role cause

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policies will be made and the policies

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that will be made when affect my life my

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siblings life and other refugees in a

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positive way because if policies are

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made regarding education social services

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regarding work permit and all that it

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enables us as refugee to become

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humanitarian actors in our own space it

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gives us the capability moving empowered

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and when

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we empowered it automatically leads to

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creating making us become piece builders

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for a country so if there's a positive

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policymaking from this summit then

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definitely it has a great impact in our

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life you've also been involved with the

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global refugee youth consultations what

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language do you hope to see in the

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anticipated summit outcome document the

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Global Compact on refugees to ensure the

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unique contributions of young people to

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this process are represented I hope to

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see more opportunities for young people

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more opportunities for them to voice out

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the ideas more opportunities for them to

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take leadership roles and skills because

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I believe if they're given that

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opportunity then definitely they become

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leaders they become the change that we

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want to see by enabled by this the whole

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global summit and stuff yeah I hope to

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see more educational opportunities for

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them capacity-building skills for them

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and they become more enlightened and

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more more active in what they're doing

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so it changes their lives and they

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become better people that will lead

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their future generations

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you mentioned peacebuilding youth are

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often considered a threat by many what

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do you think would help to ensure that

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young people can be leaders in peace

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building young people can be leaders in

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peace building if they're given the

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opportunity if they're powered if they

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are mentored they are young people have

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untapped potential and if they ignored

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if no one pays attention to them then

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anything that will make will anyone or

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anything that will pay attention to them

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distracts them but if we pay attention

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to the skills they have if we invest in

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the skills that young people have then

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definitely they become peacebuilders if

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we ignore them and think of them as

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passive actors it won't really matter

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much because they'll feel like no one is

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paying attention to them but if we take

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that time and give them the

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tenshun they want if we listen to them

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if we mentor them if we build their

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skills if we if we walk with them mentor

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mentoring them in different things in

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different spaces then they'll see the

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need of using this potential they have

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and we end up becoming peace builders

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well thank you so much for joining us

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and sharing your story it was a

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privilege thank you

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you