As AFR-SG’s flagship public outreach and awareness event, we envision Refugee Awareness Week (RAW) 2017 to be driven by the same spirit of volunteerism, as well as to galvanize partnerships and collaborations, to celebrate the growing community of advocates for people who are forcibly displaced from their homes.
In conjunction with World Refugee Day (WRD) 2017’s theme ‘Together’, RAW 2017 envisions reaching out and working collaboratively with organizations and individuals with vast experiences volunteering with refugees, to put together a schedule of events across Singapore during the week.
After the Vietnam War saw the reunification of the country under communist rule. Yen, then barely four years old, took to the seas with her family in the 1980s, becoming refugees. After spending 5 days adrift at sea, they were rescued and brought to Singapore, where the family were hosted at Hawkins Road Refugee Camp for 5 months, before being resettled to Australia. Hear what Ms. Yen Siow has to say about her experience and what RAW means to her.