Learning Resources
Monday, June 18, 2012 at 4:16PM
On Saturday afternoon, I spent a few hours at La Mesa Presbyterian Church for a Catholic Charities sponsored World Refugee Day event. It was a very sweet time with delicious food, a Peace Circle where we shared prayers for peace in many different languages, dance performances by refugees, face painting, and of course, we made bones (over $50 in donations generated through our Students Rebuild challenge partnership).
Over the course of the day, I made bones with two beautiful women from Nepal and one from Bhutan, with a group of teens from Iraq and Iran, with kids from Cuba and their families, with a few dozen other refugees from Pakistan and different African countries.
It made me think about when I was growing up and what I knew, and didn’t know about refugees. I remember hearing a lot about “boat people” in the late 1970s, and I knew that there were Cubans fleeing their country, but really that’s the end of it. The truth is, as a country geographically isolated (relatively speaking) from so much of the rest of the world, we don’t experience refugees the way other countries do. Even the tens of thousands and tens of thousands more displaced people and refugees that came to the United States after World War “were brought here.” Someone would have to be, really.
I can’t imagine the experience refugees face. Fleeing in the face of imminent danger. Covering miles and miles of harsh terrain. Arriving at camps filled with thousands more like yourself; tired, hungry, scared, with nothing.
These are links to resources that can be used to more deeply understand the struggles that refugees face. They are stories, teaching tools, a slide show, reports, and an online game, and they come from UNHCR, Doctors without Borders, and a site called Beyond the Fire. Some of them are geared for young people, and I’d suggest you share them as you can.
I haven’t been able to get the audio stories on the Beyond the Fire site to play, so I linked you to the transcripts, but by all means, give it a try yourself.
Reader Comments (2)
awesome article! I really enjoyed it!
Interesting story in Peru have experienced terrorism (Shining Path and MRTA) in the 80's, I was part of a group of immigrants who fled leaving everything to seek refuge in another city, many Peruvians left the country to seek asylum in other countries where the legislation admitted refugees. Lorenzho