Commemorating world refugee day

In advance of the World Refugee Day we are hosting an online event that sheds light on the current situation, the problems and challenges that refugee children face – and what Save the Children is doing to improve their situation and support their diverse needs. We are happy that we are joined by three experts in the field of cinema- and photography who will bring in their own experience with refugee children, their stories and the journey on which they have accompanied them. Furthermore, two of Save the Children's experts in the field of migration, child protection and Swiss projects will bring in their first-hand experience and insights from Save the Children's work in countries of origin, transit and destination for child refugees.

When: june 17th, 16:30 – 17:30 CET

Join here

Meet our participants


Dominic Nahr

Photographer

Award-winning Swiss photographer Dominic Nahr grew up in Hong Kong and lived for a long time in East Africa. For more than ten years, the Leica ambassador has been reporting from the world’s crisis hotspots. His reportages on the civil war in South Sudan, on rebels and child soldiers in Congo or on terrorism in Somalia have been published in international magazines such as Time Magazine, The New Yorker, DIE ZEIT or stern. Dominic Nahr observes people with deep empathy, his visual language goes beyond documenting atrocities and catastrophes. In 2017, he founded the photo agency MAPS with colleagues. In the same year, Dominic Nahr photographed Save the Children’s aid mission in drought-stricken Somalia for National Geographic and DER SPIEGEL. Since 2018, Dominic Nahr has been working for the Save the Children project “I am alive”


Els van Driel

Journalist and documentary director

Els van Driel is an independent journalist and documentary director. She is the founder of Monocle productions foundation, which promotes and produces films about human- and children’s rights.  She initiated the award-winning childrens documentary series Mensjesrechten/Just Kids about children’s rights and The Asylummachine, a crossmedia project about Dutch national asylumpolicies.  In 2017 she made the documentary The Deal about the consequences of the EU-Turkey deal. This film initiated parliamentary questions for a thorough evaluation of the deal. It was however turned over by a small majority in parliament.  Currently she is working on the multimedia project Shadow Gamea feature length documentary and a webdocumentary series about young unaccompanied migrants traveling through Europe.  In all projects Els aims for maximum impact in the public and political debate.  She also teaches about religion, philosophy and documentarymaking at the School of Journalism in Utrecht

Eefje Blankevoort

Journalist and documentary director

Eefje Blankevoort (Montreal, 1978) is one of the founders of the journalistic production agency Prospektor. Eefje writes articles and books and makes (multimedia) documentaries. www.prospektor.nl . She has published the books ‘The Refugeejackpot’ (in collaboration with photographer Karijn Kakebeeke), ‘Dream City’ (in collaboration with photographer Anoek Steketee) and ‘Secretly can do everything here’ (about her years in Iran). Eefje has directed, among others, the films ‘Bring home the Jews’ (Golden Calf Competition, NFF 2016) and ‘New’ (Winner Prix Jeunesse Unesco 2016). She has also made the award-winning multimedia project ‘Love Radio’ about reconciliation in Rwanda, the web documentary ‘Imperial Courts’ (Dutch Director Guild) and the multimedia project De Asielzoekmachine (Nomination Golden Calf interactive competition NFF 2016).


SOFYEN KHALFAOUI

Head of Migration & Protection

Sofyen Khalfaoui is Save the Children Switzerland’s Head of Migration & Protection. Prior to taking on this global responsibility, Sofyen worked several years in Africa and the Middle East in designing and implementing Protection and Education programmes benefiting the world’s most deprived children – especially children in migrant and refugee contexts. Building on his field-based experiences, he became cognizant of what are the specific needs of displaced children and how humanitarian responses should be shifting to new models to best respond to those gaps. As a Child Protection and Education expert, he now steers projects which resort to innovative modalities using digital tools, multi-country approaches and research-generated evidence to help best fulfilling the rights of migrant children. Sofyen is also an actor who develops theatre projects addressing questions of trauma and resilience. In our Online Event he will share information about the current international migration situation, as well as what are Save the Children’s programmes and innovations in this field.


Nina Hössli

Nationale Programme Nina Hössli

Head Swiss programmes

Nina Hössli is Head of National Programmes of Save the Children Switzerland and responsible for the strategy, implementation and programme design of our domestic work. Nina has years of experience in the fields of migration, integration as well as human and children’s rights. Through her work for several NGOs both in Switzerland as well as abroad in Bosnia and Herzegovina she knows the needs and challenges of refugee children extremely well and is familiar with their situation. In her current role as Head of National Programmes in Switzerland she is responsible for the strategic focus of Save the Children Switzerland’s domestic projects and their implementation in the Swiss asylum sector. Furthermore, together with her team she is developing Save the Children’s  information hub and competence centre for children in Swiss asylum structures and is offering guidance and workshops for professionals from the field.

Watch the recording