Refugee Week

14 - 20th June

Refugee Week

Next week is Refugee Week, celebrated from 14th-20th June. Around half of the worlds’ refugees are children and more than half of the refugee children of school age, 3.7 million, are out of school. A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence. They have a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Most likely, they cannot return home or are afraid to do so. 

 

At Great Ryrie Primary School we are so lucky to be able to welcome children and their families from all over the world.  Great Ryrie is a multi-cultural school with part of our population being refugees from Burma and Iran.  Over the last ten years I have had the privilege to work with Refugee children and families and know how much they have appreciated the warm welcome the Great Ryrie community has give to them.

 

This year's theme is 'Celebrating the year of Welcome' and what a fitting theme this is for our community.  After talking to some of our students, they felt that it was time to share some of their stories about coming to Australia which are below and we are currently putting together a small movie about their experiences.

 

I hope you enjoy reading about their experiences as much as I have,

Lauren Rice


Being a refugee is all about your country.

Being a refugee is a bit hard for some people.

A refugee is someone or a family that does not want their family to get hurt or be worried so they move to another country, so they can feel safer.

Being a refugee was kind of hard because you had to leave all the friends you had been with for a long time and you forget all the food that you ate.

Vei Vei 56C

 

Being a refugee was really fun because everyone was nice to me and I had a lot of friends to hang out with. I was never alone. Now that we have moved to a new country it makes me remember the good times we had. I’m so grateful that I’m in a beautiful school with all these great, amazing, helpful teachers. I’m very grateful.

Muan Te 56E

 

I was actually born in Burma but I didn’t really spend time there because it was not safe. My mum knew India was a safer place for our family.

I’ve spent like half of my life there.  When I was about 3 my Dad passed away.  We were kind of upset and no one was moving on from that so then my Mum thought that maybe we can move to Australia to start a new life. Being a refugee was interesting because everyone was welcoming us and we didn’t really know what to do because at the same time we felt as though we had been saved from a big mess. After months we got a bit more used to this new world. I am very grateful that I got into GRPS and I am getting a good education. I also have a lot of friends.

Naomi H 56E