UNHCR - Unit plan for ages 12-14 in Civic Education: Refugee teenagers

Colombian youths taking part in a UNHCR project for displaced youth in Pasto. © UNHCR/A.M.Rodriguez

Teaching About Refugees

Unit plan for ages 12-14 in Civic Education: Refugee teenagers

UNIT OBJECTIVES

Knowledge

To understand the abnormal and trying conditions in which refugee children and teenagers live and endure
To see that refugee adolescents need help and protection
To understand that combatants in current wars and conflicts are not just adult, male soldiers, but increasingly include children

Skills

To apply imaginative thinking to the situations of refugee children and teenagers

Values

To encourage the students to envisage the situations which refugee teenagers live through, and the conditions in which they now live.
To stimulate empathy for teenagers who are trying to cope and adjust their recent memories of their refugee experiences.

Poster for fundraising campaign (for humanitarian crisis.) A Sudanese refugee seeks shelter from a sandstorm near the Chadian border town of Tine. (February 7, 2004) © UNHCR/H.Caux

LESSONS 1 and 2: This is for real

CONTENT	TEACHING METHODS/LEARNING STRATEGIES
Through their stories, refugee teenagers communicate their often wistful memories of their lives with their families in their home countries, the traumatic upheavals that caused them to flee, reflections on their present experience as refugees, their hopes and dreams for the future, and their determination to survive and to improve their current lot.	This module is based on a collection of true stories related by refugee teenagers in interviews with UNHCR field officers. Students are asked to read the stories and to share their responses to discussion questions.
RESOURCES
Refugee teenagers tell their stories from World Refugee Day 2003 Refugee Youth: Building the Future: Information Kit, Section 4: Refugee Youth Stories Manyua's story [PDF] from World Refugee Day 2003 Refugee Youth: Building the Future: Information Kit, pp. 64-65 Joseph's story [PDF] from World Refugee Day 2003 Refugee Youth: Building the Future: Information Kit, pp. 62-63 Moses' and Joshua's story [PDF] from World Refugee Day 2003 Refugee Youth: Building the Future: Information Kit, pp. 66-67

UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie travelling by truck with separated refugee children from Kigoma to Lugufu camp in Tanzania. © UNHCR/N.Behring

LESSON 3: Separation

CONTENT	TEACHING METHODS/LEARNING STRATEGIES
The turmoil of conflict and flight often results in the separation of families. When separated from their primary caregivers, unaccompanied or separated refugee children and teenagers face a greater risk of detention, sexual exploitation and abuse, military recruitment, child labour and denial of access to education and basic assistance.	Referring to the stories from the previous lessons, students discuss the difficulties and dangers that refugee teenagers have to face when separated from their primary caregivers.
RESOURCES
Information sheet: Separation [PDF] from World Refugee Day 2003 Refugee Youth: Building the Future: Information Kit, pp. 16-17 Further reading: Separated Children in Europe Programme (SCEP) [PDF] from World Refugee Day 2003 Refugee Youth: Building the Future: Information Kit, pp. 32-33

Preparing porridge in a makeshift camp in a schoolyard in Kas town, South Darfur. July 2004. © UNHCR/K.McKinsey

LESSON 4: Being Mum or Dad when they are gone

CONTENT	TEACHING METHODS/LEARNING STRATEGIES
Refugee teenagers often take on the responsibilities as head of household due to incapacitation or death of one or both parents.	Students read about the experiences of Manyua and Joseph.
RESOURCES
Manyua's story [PDF] from World Refugee Day 2003 Refugee Youth: Building the Future: Information Kit, pp. 64-65 Joseph's story [PDF] from World Refugee Day 2003 Refugee Youth: Building the Future: Information Kit, pp. 62-63

The logo on the T-shirts says 'All children all rights everywhere'. The wearers are former child soldiers watching a volley game in a transit camp for demobilised child soldiers near Rumbek in southern Sudan. Photo courtesy of and © UNICEF/Roger LeMoyne

LESSON 5: Military recruitment

CONTENT	TEACHING METHODS/LEARNING STRATEGIES
Combatants in armed conflicts increasingly include child soldiers. Forced recruitment - why are children recruited? Social influences upon children. The experiences of child soldiers. The consequences suffered by child soldiers because of their involvement in armed conflict.	"Who fights in a war?" Students are lead through a brainstorming session on their preconceived ideas of the identities of the participants in war. They read about the experiences of two Liberian teenagers who were kidnapped and made to fight as expendable child soldiers.
RESOURCES
Information Sheet: Military recruitment [PDF] from World Refugee Day 2003 Refugee Youth: Building the Future: Information Kit, pp. 24-25 Moses' and Joshua's story [PDF] from World Refugee Day 2003 Refugee Youth: Building the Future: Information Kit, pp. 66-67 Further readings for the teacher Kidnapping the kids... (from Refugees magazine, issue 111, pp. 6-7) Turning refugees into gunmen [PDF, 2pp., 118Kb] (from Refugees magazine, issue 131, pp. 18-19) Recruiting child soldiers: The link between displacement and recruitment [PDF, 1p., 85Kb] (from Refugees magazine, issue 122, p. 19)

UNHCR Photo Galleries:

Refugee Youth
Facing the future with hope and courage.

UNHCR Web Videos:

Displaced in Uganda: replacing despair with hope
In northern Uganda, a tentative peace has given people enough hope to move out of massive camps for the displaced. For more than a decade, the Lord's Resistance Army attacked targets in the north and abducted children to help fight its battles. The violence has scarred everyone in the region, but it has been especially hard for the abductees to go back home. (5:12)

Refugee Teenagers:
Escape and Protection From Persecution and War (1999)

Refugees: Telling Their Stories
A publication of the winners & finalists of UNHCR's High School Writing Competition
(external link, [PDF, 40pp. 1.2Mb])

Useful overheads:

Critical Issues: Child Soldiers
[PDF, 152pp., 695Kb]
See Action for the Rights of Children (ARC) website here (external link, new window)

Summary update of Machel Study Follow-up Activities in 2001-2002
[PDF, 174pp., 665Kb]
"Adults go to war, but they don't realize what damage they are doing to children." - A Nicaraguan child

Related News Stories:

Related websites
(external links, new window):

Coalition to stop the use of child soldiers
(external link)

Child soldiers – Amnesty International (GCIM)
(external link)

Giving a voice to children affected by war
(external link)

Children Rights International Network
(external link)