Refugees: Real People, Real Stories, Real Life
What is a world citizen's responsibility to protect and advocate for refugees?
Photo Credit: Saharawi Refugees at Sunset by United Nations Photo is licensed under CC by 2.0
Using video media, posters, advertisements, and essays, students explore and reflect upon the experiences of refugees across the world. Students learn who is a refugee, why and how people become refugees and what their lives are like before and after becoming refugees. They investigate needs of refugees and design a service project to address a need.
Through pictures, provocative questions, group discussion, and video, students explore what a refugee is, what his or her life is like, and how people can help them feel welcome and get the tools they need to survive in a new home.
Students build an understanding and empathy for the life of a refugee. They examine the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and identify rights that are denied to refugees. They connect rights and responsibilities as they determine the value to the common good of protecting rights of refugees.
Students reflect on how it must feel to quickly pack up and leave home with little warning and few possessions and then come to an unfamiliar new community. They read the stories of five refugees from four different countires and gain empathy and an understanding of their needs and struggles. Students assess the needs of refugees through a local nonprofit and plan a service project to address one of those needs.