Children of ESCOLA SANT DOMÈNEC in Spain have drawn their family trees with the flags of the countries where their ancestors were born. We have observed that most of them also moved at some point because they needed to find a job, a better life or new opportunities.
We have concluded that all of us can be refugees or immigrants at some point of our lives, so we have to take care of people and put ourselves in their shoes to understand them better.
Last April the 9th, Marta Fos, a teacher who works in a village close to our school, came to tell thechildren of P-5 and 1st grade a beautiful story about saharian refugees.
She wrote two “solidary books” a long time ago when she firstvisited diferent camps in Africa.
Marta has been doing a great task in order to helppeople who suffer the experience of being a refugee . Her lifeexperienceallows her to transmit a special way to see the situation.
In February, a woman called Sifa Suljic, a Bosnian refugee living in Catalonia, came to our school to share her experience with us.
4th, 5th and 6th graders listened to her talk and they got impressed because of how hard it was. Children emphatized with her very quickly showing her their sensibility.
She escaped from Bosnia’s war 25 years ago, she could only come with her daughter who has 3 months at that time. By that time Bosnia was being bombed and most of her relatives were suffering: they died, they got injured or disappeared.
She went from Bosnia to Macedonia. There she could have a passport to travel to Spain, in concrete to the Basque Country. One year later, she moved to Catalonia, because there was a family who wanted to welcome her kind of family.
When the war was over her husband could come and they both had their second son.
She wants us to use her experience to develop sensibility towards war and refugees. Thank you Sifa! These are the beautiful shape poems children made after the activity.