UNHCR donates equipment to refugee students in Denmark

UNHCR’s Global Service Center in Copenhagen has donated laptops and smartphones to refugees, who have been accepted to universities in Denmark.

The volunteer network Student Refugees, receiving the donation from UNHCR in Copenhagen.

By: Elisabeth Arnsdorf Haslund - Copenhagen, Denmark | 01.03.2019

The volunteer network, Student Refugees, who are helping refugees in Denmark access and thrive in higher education, recently received a donation of laptops and smartphones from UNHCR, The UN Refugee Agency, and the organization’s Global Service Center, located in UN City in Copenhagen.

The equipment – 9 laptops and 3 smartphones – will be distributed to refugees in Student Refugees’ so-called Buddies-program, where refugees who have been accepted to a university in Denmark are paired with a volunteer mentor.

Student Refugees are currently engaging 40 university students in Denmark who are volunteering to assist refugees in Denmark to understand the Danish education system, overcome language barriers and improve their eligibility in order for them to apply to higher education. They give them advice and help them with practical issues as well, and equally important, they provide valuable peer support and motivation.

Since the network was established in 2017, Student Refugees have assisted and been in contact with more than a hundred refugees – and their fairly new Buddies-programs currently consists of 30 pairs of refugee students and their peer mentors.

Receiving the equipment on behalf of Student Refugees were coordinator Anisha Schwille and Ammar Ibrahim, himself a refugee from Syria, now volunteering in the network and soon graduating with his Master’s degree in chemistry from University of Copenhagen. And handing over the donation on behalf of UNHCR was Mirej Bakalli from Central Management Unit.

To learn more about Student Refugees and their work in Denmark, see the video and story produced by UNHCR last year: