UNHCR: The UN Refugee Agency

Overview

Education

As European societies become more multi-cultural, the need to raise awareness and promote understanding of the many reasons for which people are forced to leave their own countries grows. UNHCR supplies a wide range of educational resources for all ages. These are available on request and include posters, lesson plans, DVDs and an online interactive game. Key facts booklets and magazines for young people are also available, all aimed at providing information on the reality of life as a refugee, asylum seeker, internally displaced person or stateless person. UNHCR staff often give talks and presentations to university and secondary school students on a variety of issues. Please contact the External Relations Unit for more information.

Against All Odds – Interactive Online Game

We hope that "Against All Odds", an educational and interactive online game, will increase understanding and knowledge of refugees amongst young people. In the game participants are given the chance to follow a young person along their journey to flee oppression in their homeland and start a new life in a foreign society. The game is intended to increase young people’s awareness and knowledge about refugees - where they come from, what situations they have faced and how they adapt to their new lives.

In the web facts, participants can read about human rights and international law, as well as individual refugees' stories. Participants can also watch short films and listen to refugees talk about their personal experiences, such as how they fled, what it was like to come to a new country and having to start a new school or find a job.

This game is ideal for teachers to guide students through as a means of helping students to understand this challenging issue. Click here to play.

Not Just Numbers – School Toolkit

“Not Just Numbers” is a toolkit about migration and asylum in the European Union produced by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UNHCR.

The toolkit provides young people with the opportunity to understand that behind each anonymous statistic related to migration and asylum there is a human face and a personal story. In doing so it also addresses issues related to discrimination and xenophobia.

Please contact Lorna Cronnelly with details of your school, class age and number of students  to order a copy or click here for more details on the toolkit contents.