Vluchtelingenkamp Ontwikkelen

The problem we wanted to resolve is about the ignorance and nescience of teenagers about refugees. There is a lot of news about racism and violence against or by refugees, but that is only a very small part of the story. In the news there is very little about the biggest group of refugees inside or outside refugee camps, about what they have been through and who they are as a person. We think that because of this unawareness, there is a overall contempt against the refugees and a wrong image of what kind of persons these refugees are. This contempt and the unawareness is the problem we are trying to tackle. We think the biggest part of the problem is within the not knowing what kind of people the refugees are; not knowing what the refugees have been through; not knowing that even if they have shelter; it is not luxurious or for free; not knowing how badly most of the refugees do not want to be away from home; not knowing the refugees had (hopefully have) families, friends, jobs, cars and houses just like us and left all that behind to only be somewhere bombs don't drop occasionally. This is unknown to most of the teenagers and even adults and causes most of the contempt against the what-seem-to-be intruders.

A prototype project has already been tested and with the help of the students improved. Student described it as innovative, informative and entertaining, despite its incompleteness. Our solutions is to bring this knowledge about the refugees to the teenagers through a dynamic project done at high schools in which the students design and develop plans for a refugee camp. By designing and developing a refugee camp, the students encounter problems refugees, but also the volunteers and organizers of the camp, have to deal with. Imaginable problems like having enough food and water, but also more complicated problems regarding safety and privacy are presented or have to be thought of by the students themselves. The students are divided in groups and each group specializes in one component of the camp, such as safety, food, power supply or hygiene. The members of the group are given a certain role within group, such as chairman, secretary or treasurer. This division of the class represents what happens in reality and gives the additional opportunity to let the students become acquainted with responsibility and time pressure. This project serves also as the application of the knowledge of physics, chemistry, mathematics and economics already learned in the classes. The target group of this project is from third year HAVO and VWO up to fourth and fifth year VMBO, HAVO and VWO.