On the 12th and 13th August, for the first time Compassiva held an intensive campaign for the Degree Revalidation Project which, since 2016, has been run in partnership with UNHCR.
In this first edition the service was exclusively for Venezuelans, since Brazil has been recognising them as refugees since June of this year, in accordance with the Cartagena Declaration.
“There is an objective situation of serious and generalised violation of human rights in Venezuela. This criteria is inspired by the Cartagena Declaration and was incorporated through the Brazilian law of protection for refugees (Law 9.474 of 1997) in paragraph III of article 1. The Declaration was adopted by Brazil and another 14 Latin American and Caribbean countries in 1984, and was written into national legislation in 1997 (through law 9.474).”
The idea behind the intensive campaign was to make the most of time: prepare the largest number of processes possible, so that the team responsible for the project would later be able to pass part of them on to Brazilian universities.
This intensive campaign would not have happened without the support of volunteers split between reception, triage, filling in information, making copies and taking those served to the registry office.
“Participating in the intensive campaign for the revalidation of degrees was a significant moment for me. Being able to take action in support of refugees with a serious team like that of Compassiva has brought me growth. To me, the intensive campaign is the possibility of rescuing dreams, of redefining things, and discovering meaning. A few times I found myself feeling emotional for being part of an event which brings about transformation! It’s been important for me to live out this compassion that transforms!” says Filipe Almeida, psychologist and volunteer at Compassiva with the children from the LAR (Bringing Help to the Refugee) programme.
“When the refugees were answering our participative diagnostics test and got to the question ‘how do you think Compassiva and UNHCR can support you more?’, a lot of them were confused and said ‘even more???’ Having my degree is already everything!’ It’s not just a question of revalidating degrees, but of planting the hope for a better quality of life. That in Brazil it’s possible to rebuild your life and realise dreams” adds Ana Pydd, financial assistant for Compassiva and UNHCR’s Degree Revalidation Project through the LAR (Bringing Help to the Refugee) programme.
All in all, over those two days, 70 people were served; 62 processes are totally roadworthy and are already being sent to the respective universities.
NOTES
1 – UNHCR congratulates Brazil for recognising Venezuelans as refugees with the Cartagena Declaration as a basis, article on UNHCR’s website, 29 July 2019. Available at: https://www.acnur.org/portugues/2019/07/29/acnur-parabeniza-brasil-por-reconhecer-condicao-de-refugiado-de-venezuelanos-com-base-na-declaracao-de-cartagena/
