2.2 Find the Interpreter!

This section of the game is set in a refugee centre in a country of asylum.

Goal: To make students understand how alienated and vulnerable people become when they cannot communicate with the people around them, yet they need their help. In their home countries asylum seekers have family and a social network. Now, they are often completely alone in their country of asylum. Many asylum seekers also worry about their family’s well-being back home.

A great book to use with students to accompany this section would be From there to here, an anthology of 16 personal accounts of immigration to the UK, including that of unaccompanied children. It was published by Penguin in 2007.

Comprehension exercise

Ask students to discuss amongst themselves what they would need in order to start their life anew. Many refugees have few belongings with them when they arrive in their new country. Make the class pretend that all they have is the clothes on their back. Then ask each member of the class to explain one additional item that they need. But they are not allowed to talk – only gesticulate, draw on the black board or mime/dramatise without using words.

Discuss with the class what feelings you might develop for your homeland if you were forced to move elsewhere. List the items pupils say they would miss on a flip chart.

Awareness exercise

Refugees are normal people just like everybody else. The difference is that they have been subjected to danger and other difficult experiences and losses. Asylum seekers and newly arrived refugees have many different needs. There are a number of organisations that assist refugees. They may be local authorities which run special projects, voluntary organisations or support groups that refugees themselves have set up. Many organisations rely on donations, including the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Ask two groups of students to contact local organisations that promote the rights of refugees or to research these organisations’ work using the internet. Groups should then present their findings to the class. Examples of such organisations include: UNHCR, Refugee Council, Refugee Action and the British Red Cross. Please see the educational links for these organisations’ web addresses.

Many refugees have had traumatic experiences. It is important to know if a refugee has been subjected to torture or not, both when assessing their asylum application and in order to provide the asylum seeker with help and support. Torture is a very traumatic experience and may generate feelings of guilt and shame. Many refugees find it difficult to talk about what they have experienced, even though they may seek treatment for physical complications resulting from the torture. Many rehabilitation centres for victims of torture have been set up around the world.

Ask a group of students to find out what help is available in their local area for refugees who have been subjected to torture. In the UK, among the principal organisations that helps torture victims are the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, and the Helen Bamber Foundation, both based in London. Please see the educational links for the websites of these two organisations.

Many unaccompanied refugee children have additional difficulties in their countries of asylum. They have often had difficult experiences in the past and are now arriving in a foreign country without any parents or other adult relatives as support.

Ask a group of students to do research about unaccompanied children in the UK; how many there are, which problems they experience and what role voluntary organisations (for example, Save the Children) play in helping them. Please see the educational links for Save the Children’s website.

Goal: To give students greater insight into the specific problems that refugees and asylum seekers may experience in their host country and what support may be available.

Interactive exercise

Ask pupils to list three important things they need their friends for and three things they need their family for.

Then remove the option of turning to friends – they are now alone in a new country and must choose somebody else to replace their friends.

Then remove the option of turning to their family and ask the students to ‘replace’ them with somebody else. Discuss what the students would do if they did not have any friends or relatives to turn to.

Goal: To engage students with how it would feel not to have a social network around them.