Social Action

Social Action Ideas That Pertain to Refugees

Show this inspiring TED talk to students and discuss ideas for supporting local refugees. Teachers and students could brainstorm ideas, write them down, and then vote as a class on which activity to pursue.

Clothing Drive: Refugees sometimes have to leave their homes without much warning which could mean that they could be in a new place with few personal belongings. Students could begin a clothes closet at school and opened it to any students who may want or need to get items. This would benefit not only refugee families, but families of lower socioeconomic status as well. Teachers should also participate by bringing and taking clothes in order to model that using the clothing closet is not something to be ashamed of. Through this, students could learn about the importance of recycling clothing and the powerful impact it has on our Earth.
My Bright Kite: Teachers can contact My Bright Kite to receive resources such as whole school assemblies, talks that incorporate story telling, real life experiences, and learning by doing. The goal of these resources are to evoke empathy in students and educate them on the aspects of being a refugee.
Bake Sale: The class could hold bake sales at school and within the community in order to raise funds to donate to their local community sponsorship that helps with refugee resettlement. A representative could be invited into the classroom to share their work with students and then the class could begin fundraising to support the organization. While fully sponsoring a family may not be possible for one class, if the whole school got involved in the fundraising it could be possible. Students could serve as ambassadors and present their idea for fundraising and share why it matters in order to get other classes in the school on board.
Informational Posters: Something that would be valuable would be to have students create informational posters about inclusive language. Terms such as immigrant and refugee often get misused and interchanged, when the terms are not actually interchangeable. Students could make posters to inform others about the differences in these terms, as well as provide contexts for when it's appropriate to use each one. These posters should be hung in places were they will be seen by others, such as in the halls or in the bathrooms. Please note that the inclusive language from our inquiry slides could be used to guide these posters. These posters could be displayed around school, voted on, and the winning poster could be published somewhere in the school or local newspaper.
Perseverance Projects: Students could research different refugees and their stories and discuss the idea of perseverance. Students could select a refugee to write a letter to in which they describe the way in which they were inspired by their specific story. The informational posters would serve as a resource while writing the letters. This process would be away to acknowledge struggle, celebrate success, and appreciate perseverance.

Additional Resources

https://refugeeweek.org.uk/resources/education-resources/schools-speakers/ (school speakers and programs)

https://refugeeweek.org.uk/simple-acts/7-join-the-movement/ (different campaigns and groups to join)

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/syria-refugees-conflict-ways-to-help/

"Be the change you wish to see in the world ."

-Ghandi

For additional social action practice surrounding themes of perseverance and identity, please also consider the social action ideas presented through Rescue and Jessica. Some refugees experience difficult situations that define them as a person because of the way that they choose to respond, this is a powerful topic for children to explore.

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