Dinah lives in Uganda (borders South Sudan) and was abducted at the age of 9 by rebels, some of them Dinah’s age or younger. Dinah was able to escape and ran for a week to a refugee camp where she was reunited with her family.
Content Advisory: This story includes disturbing content about child rape and the exploitation of children as soldiers. Rape is mentioned, but not detailed. Images and narration go into some detail about the killing and torture child soldiers are expected to do.
From the website:
We create spaces for transforming lives and communities, through the acts of listening to and sharing stories. Our public program enables people to register individually for storytelling workshops. Our custom program collaborates with organizations around the world, on workshops in story facilitation, digital storytelling, and other forms of participatory media production.
StoryCenter is committed to challenging white supremacy and supporting social justice, in every aspect of our work.
Dinah, as did others on the Story Center website, created a digital story of her experience. The narration is illustrated by Dinah's drawings of the harsh reality she encountered during her abduction and captivity before escaping and reuniting with her family at a refugee camp.
Medium
Content Advisory: This story includes disturbing content about child rape and the exploitation of children as soldiers.
Rape is mentioned, but not detailed. Images and narration go into some detail about the killing and torture child soldiers are expected to do.
The video is captioned to facilitate viewer understanding of the text.
Western world tenth grade students may have a hard time relating to the refugee experience. The simplified story with subtitles and child-drawn illustrations coming from a peer-aged refugee may help students engage.
Teacher could show the video in class. Teachers may first want to prepare students for the disturbing information to be covered in the story. After the showing, teacher could lead a discussion on Dinah's strength of character, her life goals, and support she found in the camp.
Individually, or in small groups, students could think about their own story and write their own story.
Citation:
Story Center (2006). Untitled by Dinah [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/NwIaOj3En8c
10.10 Students analyze instances of nation-building in the contemporary world in at
least two of the following regions or countries: the Middle East, Africa, Mexico
and other parts of Latin America, and China.
1. Understand the challenges in the regions, including their geopolitical, cultural,
military, and economic significance and the international relationships in which they
are involved.
2. Describe the recent history of the regions, including political divisions and systems,
key leaders, religious issues, natural features, resources, and population patterns.
3. Discuss the important trends in the regions today and whether they appear to serve
the cause of individual freedom and democracy.