UNICEF USA and Students Rebuild: The Welcoming Refugees Project

Did you know that over 27 million people were forcibly displaced last year? Half of those refugees are children who have left everything they know behind.

UNICEF USA has once again partnered with Students Rebuild, a program of the Bezos Family Foundation, in support of a new Challenge – the Welcoming Refugees Project. This year’s Challenge invites students from around the world to learn about refugees and their experiences and then take action to make local and global communities more welcoming and inclusive through art.

K-12 classrooms can sign up to access free, ready-made, easy-to-use lesson plans that aim to deepen student empathy for our global neighbors — and turn that empathy into effective humanitarian action by UNICEF and other organizations. In joining the Welcoming Refugees Project, students from around the world can learn about those displaced by war and other crises that cause families to flee their homes. Participating K-12 students can then create a work of art that reflects what they've learned, and that incorporates culture, community and connection.

For every piece of artwork submitted to the Welcoming Refugees Project, Students Rebuild will donate $5 to UNICEF USA and other organizations supporting humanitarian relief efforts for refugees, migrants and asylum seekers around the world

For every piece of artwork submitted to the Welcoming Refugees Project, Students Rebuild will donate $5 to UNICEF USA and other organizations supporting humanitarian relief efforts for refugees, migrants and asylum seekers around the world. The funds received by UNICEF USA through this partnership will go toward UNICEF programs for adolescent refugees in Jordan and those impacted by the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Students Rebuild has issued a different Challenge every year since 2010. Each Challenge invites K-12 students to respond to a specific problem affecting young people somewhere in the world and explore an issue alongside fellow “artivists” from around the globe. More than one million student activists from 83 countries and all 50 U.S. states have participated in these Challenges. They have created nearly 6 million works of art and raised more than $11 million dollars to benefit communities all across the globe.

In 2019, UNICEF USA participated as a partner in the Students Rebuild Hunger Challenge, inviting young people to craft and submit an illustration of their favorite recipe and raising funds for nutritional interventions for children in Ethiopia and Yemen.

Take students on an educational adventure of art and empathy. Take the Challenge. To begin, visit studentsrebuild.org/refugee