The UNHCR Foundation, together with its team called Ponchos Azules, launched an NFT collection to reward people who help with this Agency, which for 71 years has been working to protect more than 100 million displaced and refugee people in the world.
The UNHCR Foundation, a UN refugee agency, has been working for 71 years to protect the more than 100 million people who are forced to flee their homes every day for reasons such as war, violence and human rights violations, among others.
In addition, behind UNHCR there are people from all over Argentina called “Los Ponchos Azules“, which are all Argentines who intensively support the cause of these millions of displaced human beings and refugees in the world.
For UNHCR, to be a Blue Poncho is to be an agent of change, a representative of solidarity and a person with empathy, as every day you work with people who had to flee their homes to practically save their lives, and the lives of their families.
Currently, they presented their first NFT collection, which consists of different ponchos (as seen in the main image) that represent the people called “Blue Ponchos for Peace” and will be given free of charge to all those who are members of this organization that has been working for more than 70 years in the search for a better world.
The official announcement was made through their social networks along with a video of approximately 10 seconds where you can see at least five different models of ponchos in non-fungible token format. In addition, they are accompanied by a paragraph that reads:
“We Blue Ponchos have our NFT!!!, it is a unique and non-transferable token that, in this case, represents the Blue Ponchos’ support for displaced and refugee people around the world.”
What is UNHCR
UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) was established in 1950, after World War II.
Currently, Filippo Grandi has been in office as High Commissioner since January 1, 2016, succeeding António Guterres after more than 10 years at the helm of UNHCR.
Grandi has been at the head of different international organizations for approximately 30 years. Among his most important works are:
Commissioner General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
He was part of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan as Special Representative.
He has a long career in UNHCR for being part of the Agency in different parts of the world such as Africa, Asia, the Middle East and at the organization’s headquarters in Geneva.
On the other hand, UNHCR is present in more than 135 countries and has more than 11,000 people working on a daily basis. Its objective is to meet the basic needs of people who have had to flee their homes due to violence or environmental/natural disasters.
The main areas of work emphasized by UNHCR are: food, water, shelter, health and education. In addition, they cooperate in four continents, Africa is the destination of more than half of the aid sent by UNHCR due to the high number of conflicts. Other areas that UNHCR helps are the Middle East, Latin America, Southeast Asia and the Mediterranean.
Blue Ponchos
As I mentioned before, the Blue Ponchos are all the Argentine men and women who support the cause so that millions of people find containment after having fled their homes and countries to save their lives and those of their families due to consequences such as wars, human rights violations, natural catastrophes, etc.
At the time of writing this article for NFTexpress, 558,795 people have signed up to be Ponchos Azules on the UNHCR Foundation’s official website and the Agency’s goal is to reach 1,000,000 and become the world’s largest team of “Ponchos Azules por la Paz” (Blue Ponchos for Peace).
For the UNHCR Argentina Foundation, to be a Poncho Azul is to be a person who supports the cause of refugees. Also, they understand that people of solidarity are those who welcome refugees, who believe that the pain of families displaced by major forces from their homes should be transformed into a better future for them.
Achievements, awards and alliances with companies
UNHCR has the capacity to respond to emergencies affecting 750,000 people in just 72 hours.
They have also made a big difference with other organizations by helping more than 10 million people find a new home in the last 15 years.
In addition, UNHCR is a two-time winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and is the United Nations lead organization in the Global Compact for refugees worldwide.
Finally, in Argentina there are multiple private companies that accompany and help UNHCR to provide answers to the urgent needs of thousands of families. Among the best known are:
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Written by Rodrigo Catalan (TW: @RodrigoCatalanB) for NFT Express.