Year 9 Students Follow In The Footsteps Of A Refugee

Year 9 students learning about the experiences of refugees at the ‘Refugee Camp In my Neighbourhood’ excursion.

Student report about the ‘Refugee Camp In my Neighbourhood’ excursion last Friday.

Year 9 student leaders attended a ‘Refugee Camp In my Neighbourhood’ last Friday giving them the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of refugees on their journey to safety. The students had the opportunity to participate in interactive activities in what was an immersion experience held at Western Sydney University Rydalmere Campus.

Year 9 student Riya F. has written a report on this experience:

Refugees are those fleeing to other countries to seek safety, who cannot return back to their homes due to the dangerous conditions. Asylum seekers are those who have left their country, seeking safety, who have not yet been legally recognised as a refugee by the UNHCR. Despite hearing these terms, many people do not understand the difference between them, and do not know the real difficulties and processes that refugees and asylum seekers endure and persist through.

On Friday 1st August, Year 9 leaders and Mrs L. Beadman, Leader of Learning Wellbeing Year 9, went to the ‘Refugee Camp in our Neighborhood,’ a tour emulating the experiences that refugees arriving in Australia undergo, with real refugees teaching us and giving us insights into their journeys.

When we arrived, we were guided into a room where we received an introduction establishing basic definitions, facts and statistics about refugees worldwide. We were all shocked to see the staggering numbers, of around 13,750 refugees coming to Australia every year, seeking safety. Our first tour guides gave us each a piece of paper, where we had to write five things we would bring with us, in under a minute, aiming to show us the speed at which people had to make these incredibly difficult decisions. After writing down our decisions, we were escorted outside to meet a ‘security guard’, who ripped off the pieces of paper with items such as money, phone and family photos written on them, to exemplify the kinds of things that would be taken away from refugees. We were spoken to in a different language, to show us the language barrier making things more difficult for refugees. The security guard acted harsh, to show us the unfortunate reality of how refugees and asylum seekers were treated upon arrival. After listening to our next tour guide’s own story of her arrival into Australia, we were moved on to a different setting.

Our tour guide talked to us about the small, cramped houses that refugees would find for shelter when arriving in their destinations, and the difficulty of being accepted by UNHCR as a refugee. We were escorted to an area which showed us the living conditions in a refugee camp. The bathrooms were incredibly small, with a hole for a toilet, and men and women were required to share. Education systems were in a small tent, with only basic facilities like chalk and chalkboards available for students to learn. Furthermore, older students were to be with younger students, impacting their overall education level. Additionally, our tour guides showed us how people would have to live in small tents in the camp, telling us that if there was bad weather, tents could blow away and families would be left in the rain with no shelter.

Our next tour guide introduced us to a ‘Make your own story’ type game. We would start at one board, and read the instructions, telling us to go to the next, to see the different kinds of stories that refugees have had and continue to experience. While some of these stories ended positively, with refugees being able to have a house, others unfortunately ended up with injuries and deaths, showcasing the hard reality and circumstances undergone by refugees and asylum seekers. We were taken to an area where we pretended to be on a boat, like the refugees would have been on, listening to an audio that explained the lack of food, spread of disease, harsh waves and fear of being jailed on the journey. We were then moved to a room emulating a detention centre, where we each received a slip of paper with a code like: FCR-632. This code was essentially the person’s name and how they would be identified, almost objectifying their human essence. As we moved on, we watched a heartwarming video of little children who had to move overseas as asylum seekers and be considered refugees, finally allowed to come to Australia. Those children are an inspiration to us, because of their resilience and understanding of others.

At the end of our experience, we were taken into a room, where we were able to answer four questions about the program and our experience. We were also able to write a motivational message to refugees, sticking all of our answers and encouraging quotes on a large wall filled with colourful post-it notes.

This whole experience not only gave us an in-depth understanding of how difficult being an asylum seeker and refugee was, but also enabled us to open our eyes and our hearts to all those around us, and to be more grateful for everything we have. Sometimes we don’t know the stories of other people around us, and we tend to judge them by merely looking. The people we walk by, or we see in the shops, could be refugees, and hold stories that have shaped who they are today.

Catherine McAuley once said, “We should by shining lamps, giving light to all around us,” and after engaging in this experience, I truly believe that being kind, accepting and there for one another, is the greatest way to gratitude and happiness for all. Even a small gesture can make someone’s day, no matter what they have gone through, and this eye opening experience has shown us this.