Important evidence on the value of facilitating physical exercise as part of refugee welcome and support from a team including two members of our Olympic Refuge Foundation Think Tank ⁦Simon Rosenbaum⁩ ⁦Anna Farello⁩ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38605213/

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Great to see this important and accessible collation of resources by colleagues with the Olympic Refuge Foundation Think Tank widely shared through the sportanddev website! sportanddev.org/latest/news/un…

Greatly honoured to be hosting these podcasts bringing refugee athletes together with humanitarians, researchers and activists to reflect on the role of sport in promoting wellbeing, belonging and inclusion of people with experience of forced displacement. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thi…

Delighted to have welcomed Rose Nathike - flag bearer for the first IOC Refugee Olympic Team in Rio - as the first guest on our Olympic-themed podcast #ThinkSportThinkRefuge. Do listen - hers is a great story.

Why prioritise refugee engagement in sport and physical exercise? Hear my guest on the #ThinkSportThinkRefuge podcast, Simon Rosenbaum, share evidence on its physical and mental health impacts and role as a non-stigmatic touch point for addressing basic needs.

As a boomer encouraged by the vibe of Skateistan and co, I’m looking forward to the skateboarding community at #Paris2024 reinforcing some of these principles, as embodied in our #ThinkSportThinkRefuge podcast series.

Delighted to see so many #MHPSS colleagues picking up on this important messaging…..

Why see sport coaches as frontline workers in welcoming, supporting and emotionally equipping refugee youth? Hear Lesley Snider sharing insights from developing and delivering #SportCoach+ to enable trauma-informed work with displaced youth. SportCoachPlus.org.

Delighted to see the work of Simon Rosenbaum reach new audiences concerned with the well-being, integration and belonging of refugee youth. MHPSS Network Refugee Hosts FCDO Research, Science and Technology FCDO Humanitarian Research UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency Jess Richardson

In what way is sport credibly a means of refugee protection? Hear my latest #ThinkSportThinkRefuge guest, IFRC’s Sarah Harrison, discuss the role of sport and physical activity in promoting refugee health and well-being, community connectedness and personal agency.

How can sport genuinely contribute to a ‘durable solution’ for forced migrants? Hear the ORF Think Tank’s #ThinkSportThinkRefuge podcast guest Lam Joar discuss his path from Kakuma refugee camp to studying Refugee Studies at Oxford via the running track. It’s well worth a listen!

How to ensure widening access to sport for refugees is fully gender inclusive? #ThinkSportThinkRefuge guest Muna Dahouk, just back from #PARIS2024, reflects on the influences shaping her engagement in sport through her youth in Syria, displacement to Europe and Olympic selection.

What are the implications of transformational inclusion for engaging with refugees? Gerald Mballe discusses the impact of work with persons with intellectual disability through the Special Olympics movement following his flight from Cameroon and his engagement in unified sport.

Muna Dahouk on gender inclusion in judo, the Olympics and refugee engagement. Well worth a listen……

Great to share findings of @HermosillaSabri and my mid-term evaluation of the World Health Organization (WHO) #SpecialInitiativeforMentalHealth with students and colleagues ColumbiaPopFam yesterday!

I’m off. I valued Twitter as a means of exchange of ideas. I experience X as a torrent of mis-information. For those who have valued following me and wish to continue to do so, please find me on LinkedIn or @alastairager.bsky.social

After several weeks of feeling deeply discouraged and unable to post anything of value I am delighted to share a juxtaposition of a few experiences that have helped me cultivate fragments of optimism. See my tentative ‘reasons to be cheerful’ parts 1-4 at alastairager.bsky.social