The International Rescue Committee (IRC), through funding from EEA Grants, will establish 10 Supported Independent Living (SIL) apartments in Athens, with a capacity of 40 places to accommodate asylum seeking unaccompanied children aged 16 years old and above. The IRC will provide quality accommodation and a holistic package of individualized support services to at least 120 UAC over a duration of 33 months. In cooperation with public entities, we will facilitate access of these adolescents to training opportunities and accelerate the referral and transfer of unaccompanied children in Supported Independent Living apartments.

Since mid-2013, the International Rescue Committee has promoted community awareness about violence against women, setting up services for survivors and supporting health workers. Dr. Ahmed is one of several key staffers at the IRC-supported health facility in Mogadishu, where the first survivor of sexual violence sought support in February 2014. Since then, the IRC team has helped more than 30 survivors.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, UNICEF, and IRC, the International Rescue Committee, today issued a Roadmap for action to improve the situation of refugee and migrant children arriving and staying in Europe without their parents or care givers. The Roadmap highlights the need to identify children, register them through child-friendly procedures, and build a relationship of trust with them as early as possible. Ensuring that a well-trained guardian takes immediate responsibility for the child, engaging cultural mediators, and mobilizing members of host communities are critical measures that can help build a trusting relationship and protect children from smugglers, traffickers or family pressure.

Daniel, an ex-soldier from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, fled to Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya in the mid-nineties. He suffers from post-traumatic stress. The International Rescue Committee provides mental health and psychosocial support.