foni Joyce is a refugee from South Sudan
phony thank you for joining us the
United Nations estimated that there were
20 million refugees worldwide at the end
of last year we often hear such macro
level statistics but it is the more
personal stories that can resonate and
bring about awareness and change can you
please tell us more about your own
experience as a refugee thank you so
much as you've said my name is Wendy
Joyce I was born in Sudan but originally
from South Sudan my parents fled our
country in 1981 due to war and they had
to like take a long walk from South
Sudan into Uganda before they made it to
Kenya and it was one of those
experiences you were literally running
for your life because my father was a
journalist yeah and there were people
pursuing him because they believed there
was an informant and he literally had to
take a long walk to just survive make
sure his family safe and he ended up in
Nairobi where we stay currently with my
siblings and my mother we are speaking
ahead of the UN General Assembly
high-level plenary meeting on addressing
large movements of refugees and migrants
to be held September 19th 2016 this will
serve as a key forum for member states
to determine a plan to meet refugees
immediate humanitarian and longer-term
development needs how can the outcome of
this summit make a difference for people
like you and your family the outcome of
this summit plays a vital role cause
policies will be made and the policies
that will be made when affect my life my
siblings life and other refugees in a
positive way because if policies are
made regarding education social services
regarding work permit and all that it
enables us as refugee to become
humanitarian actors in our own space it
gives us the capability moving empowered
and when
we empowered it automatically leads to
creating making us become piece builders
for a country so if there's a positive
policymaking from this summit then
definitely it has a great impact in our
life you've also been involved with the
global refugee youth consultations what
language do you hope to see in the
anticipated summit outcome document the
Global Compact on refugees to ensure the
unique contributions of young people to
this process are represented I hope to
see more opportunities for young people
more opportunities for them to voice out
the ideas more opportunities for them to
take leadership roles and skills because
I believe if they're given that
opportunity then definitely they become
leaders they become the change that we
want to see by enabled by this the whole
global summit and stuff yeah I hope to
see more educational opportunities for
them capacity-building skills for them
and they become more enlightened and
more more active in what they're doing
so it changes their lives and they
become better people that will lead
their future generations
you mentioned peacebuilding youth are
often considered a threat by many what
do you think would help to ensure that
young people can be leaders in peace
building young people can be leaders in
peace building if they're given the
opportunity if they're powered if they
are mentored they are young people have
untapped potential and if they ignored
if no one pays attention to them then
anything that will make will anyone or
anything that will pay attention to them
distracts them but if we pay attention
to the skills they have if we invest in
the skills that young people have then
definitely they become peacebuilders if
we ignore them and think of them as
passive actors it won't really matter
much because they'll feel like no one is
paying attention to them but if we take
that time and give them the
tenshun they want if we listen to them
if we mentor them if we build their
skills if we if we walk with them mentor
mentoring them in different things in
different spaces then they'll see the
need of using this potential they have
and we end up becoming peace builders
well thank you so much for joining us
and sharing your story it was a
privilege thank you
you