As Turquoise Harmony Institute (THI) we would like to thank you for joining the “A Refugee Concert 2019” event which took place in Johannesburg on June 21st a day after the World Refugee Day to create awareness about the challenges of the refugees and other forcibly displaced people.
We would like to express our gratitude to you for attending and/or supporting this event to help refugees in South Africa and all around the world whose only wish is to be accepted and embraced by people of their new homes.
We all have witnessed, through this event for the refugees, that there is indeed a huge need for this kind of events to bring people together around the same ideal of acknowledging the challenges of “others” around us as well as seeking sustainable solutions for their challenges and problems. Furthermore, we, as people of South Africa, realize the true essence of our young democracy by only standing side by side to help others who are different than us in many different ways.
We believe that the concert was a success in achieving our goals for organizing it. The purpose of the concert – which was to make people put themselves in someone else’s shoes for a moment to be able to understand why life is not as easy as it seems for some who has to forcibly dislocate – was achieved and misinformation and lack of awareness about the issues affecting refugees and people seeking asylum were diminished to some extent. We could see this from the positive feedback we received from the participants. Firstly, the ticket sales were good which shows that there are many more people out there who are conscious about the plight and challenges of refugees and aiding them. Moreover, the presence of refugee children and families in the concert indicates that it was a day of triumph in attaining what we have aimed by this concert. The event also took place in many different media channels and outlets, which helped us make our voice heard not only by the audience in concert hall but also by millions outside.
Our wish is to organize this event annually not only as a concert but maybe series of other kinds of events and activities to bring it to people’s attention at national and international level.
