New Zealand National Refugee Youth Council

The New Zealand National Refugee Youth Council (NZNRYC) is a national refugee youth-led non-government organization that aims to engage, support, and advocate for refugee youth in New Zealand to enable them to lead meaningful lives. We are one of the only organizations to empower young people with the tools and skills to execute their vision. As a youth NGO, we provide young people with a space to experience democratic processes as well as enable their greater participation in the areas that concern them. Unfortunately, youth resettling in New Zealand face a host of challenges ranging from education, mental health, employment, language barrier to social isolation amongst others. Existing youth policies for the refugee-background young people have fallen short of the challenges facing youth and needs to be revisited in order to harness their talent to foster development. While there are several organizations working for the youth there has been no refugee youth-led initiative. To address this gap in the sector, NZNRYC was formed. The primary aim of NZNRYC is to empower young people in their everyday lives so as to enable them to build a successful life. NZNRYC advocates for young people and supports them in all areas that affect them, be it education, health and well-being, unemployment, housing, recreation, and social relationships