A Project onRefugees

With this project we want to promote cross-cultural understanding and tolerance.

Since 2001, the United Nations has designated June 20th as World Refugee Day, dedicated to raising awareness of the situation of refugees throughout the world.

Refugee. What does it mean?A refugee is a person who has to leave his country because of war, a natural disaster like an earthquake, or another danger.At the moment there are more than 50 million refugees in the world and many of these are children.Sometimes groups of refugees go to live in another country far away fromtheir homes. They have to leave their belongings behind and start a new life with nothing. This means finding a new home, making new friends, starting a new school and learning a new language.

Travelling to another country for a holiday is exciting and fun … but being a refugee can be frightening and lonely.

Let's understand...Why do people move from their homes?People who move voluntarily

People who move against their will

1. to find a better job

2. to start a new life

3. to find a better future for their family

4. to escape from poverty

1. to escape from war

2. to escape from persecution and discrimination

3. to escape from exploitment

4. to escape from terrorism

Why do refugees leave their countries?

1. To escape from wars2. To avoid exploitment and

persecution3. Because they want to live in

democratic countries

What do they leave behind?

They leave behind everything, such as their house, friends, families and their belongings.

What’s the difference between travelling to another country for holidays and being a refugee?

If you travel for holidays you havefun and you can come back home.

If you travel like a refugee, the

journey can be dangerous, deadly and you don’t know if you can return to your birthplace.

Let's understand the refugee crisis watching the UNICEF video “From Syria to Germany: A tale of two brothers”.

The story. Ali and Ahmed are teenagers. They had to leave their home because of war. The video tellsthe story of their journey to Germany. They are just two of the thousands of refugees in the world today.

Lesbos, Greece

Ali, 17 years old: I'm on my own except for my brother. I worry about him a lot. If I didn't care so much

about him, I wouldn't have brought him with me. Our parents raised him and took care of him, but now I'm the one who has to look after him. In the region where we are from there is the conflict in Syria, there is ISIS, there are many conflicts. So many problems. It's never safe. We could have died there. It's my dream to go to Germany.

Two weeks later Ali and Ahmed reached Germany.

Ali: Germany is very beautiful … safe... organised...

Braunschweig Children's Home

Ali: I'm not looking for a lot here. All I want is to live with my family in oneplace. Here, there's freedom, there's order. You can leave your house without worrying about someone hurting you. Am I happy? Of course not. No one can be happy without his family, without his friends but, at the same time, I'm happy we left Lebanon and that we made it here safely. And God willing, what will be, will be.

How do you think a refugee of your age feel?

1. I think he is scared about the

future.

2. He is afraid of dying.

3. He is afraid of loneliness.

4. He fears not to be accepted.

5. He doesn't know where he is

going, where he is going to live,

who are the new people he is

going to meet.

Is the word “refugee” used correctly?

There are many stereotypes about refugees.Media (TV, newspapers, social networks, ordinary people) sometimes say that refugees are:

1. terrorists2. aliens3. inferior4. beasts5. dangerous6. disease carrier7. different8. criminals

What does the Universal Declaration of Human Rights say?

Art. 1 All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

Art. 2 Everyone has all the rights andfreedoms without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin.

Art. 25 Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services.

Art. 26 Everyone has the right to education.

What do you think about the refugees problem?

What can we do to help refugees like Ali and Ahmed?

1. We can give them food, water, hot blankets and a house.

2. We can give them education and work.

3. We can give them a job so theycan earn money and integrate into society.

4. Every country must have right and clear laws.

5. Italy and European countries should have laws and help them in their countries because we can’t host everyone.

6. They just want a second chanceand they deserve this chance.

7. We can help them to rebuild their land, their culture.

8. It is important that all the countries work together to stop wars.

Let's plan...

A group of refugees of our age are coming to our village. They are the same age as us. Some of them can speak English. They don’t know anything about our life, our place and above all they don’t speak Italian.

What can we do to welcome them?

Some ideas...

1. To teach some Italian words.

2. To show them around: to show where shops are, where

the school is, the way to their house, where the Town Councilis, where and what time the bus stop is.

3. To go sightseeing Verona.

4. To do a welcome party at school.

5. To prepare an Italian dinner and ask them to prepare their typical food. This is an opportunity for the refugees and also for us to find out about a new culture.

And... first of all...

A “getting to know each other” activity: The story of your name....

What's in a name? Everyone's name has an interesting origin, so we can play explaining what our name means and where it comes from. This activity can be icebreaker and help to respect and understand eachother.

Maddalena Federico

Anna Camilla Irene

ElisaEdoardo Marco Gaia

Chiara Adela

Martina Noemi