Maddy talks Delhi

I was placed in Delhi, India. As a junior Professional Consultant I work in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. My role involves working with the child protection team as well as the community development initiative.

As part of the child protection team, I assist in strengthening current child protection procedures in three key areas: promoting Anganwadi (Court Yard Shelter) enrolment for all children under the age of 6, promoting long term visa application for unaccompanied and separated children, and updating child protection data in order to ensure that appropriate interventions are made.

In addition, I work with the community development initiatives. I am working on a project aimed at mobilizing young refugees to become an extension of the overstretched case workers in meeting the protection needs of unaccompanied elderly refugees in Delhi.

A lot of children are in dire need of protection especially young refugees. We ensure that they get adequate access to education and health care by encouraging then to enrol in Anganwadi which is a court yard shelter in the Hindi language. Anganwadi was first developed as an initiative to combat child hunger in the 1970’s. It was very beneficial because it provides refugees with access to birth documentation, assistance with school registration, and health care unlike other child care programs. In the past refugees often had to wait until problems availing government services arose before UNHCR and its partners could step in to remedy the situation – an inefficient way for refugees to access services to which they are entitled.

I am currently working on an initiative designed to link youth with unaccompanied elderly refugees from the same community. There are currently 46 unaccompanied elderly refugees in Delhi who lack family support systems and are completely on their own. They have various protection and assistance needs that needs to be addressed, including but not limited to recreation, accompaniment, health (all aspects), and nutrition. The rationale behind the initiative is that youth can be mobilized to become an extension of community service providers in meeting the protection needs of the unaccompanied elderly in their community, who are at a high risk of being neglected and abandoned. The initiative intends to build a partnership between youth and elderly; thus supporting the elderly person’s care and protection needs, empowering youth through the acquisition of valuable skills and training, and strengthening refugee communities by reducing stereotypes and barriers between ages. In addition, sixteen of the 46 identified cases of unaccompanied elderly are currently unaccounted for, and it is the hope that the consolidation of youth to support the elderly will help in locating these missing people.

So far, my role in the child protection unit has allowed me to dabble in a lot of new areas and develop numerous skills. In addition to developing my public speaking skills through meeting with parents to disseminate information about Anganwadi enrolment, I am further developing my counselling skills by counselling youth on their legal right to obtain a long term visa. Also this opportunity has given me the ability to develop my critical thinking about how to move forward in various cases how interventions can be made. I have also developed my problem solving skills throughout my stay so far.