Age group: Elfins/Pioneers

How long it will take: 30 minutes

What materials you will need: None

The aim of the activity: To explore the difficulties faced by refugees

What to do:
Begin with an introductory discussion of the following questions:·

• What is a refugee? Define the term.·
• Why do people become refugees?
• How do they travel from their country?
• What happens when they get to their destination?

See how much the group knows already.· Specific stories can be easier to comprehend than general statistics, use one person's story to explore the issues. (e.g. case study on the main refugee page).

Talk about how many asylum seekers and refugees don't speak English, what difficulties would this cause? Try passing short messages around the circle using pictures, symbols or mime.

Physical Chinese whispers: Send half the group out the room. The others think up a simple story. The first person from outside comes in and is told the story; they must then act it out, without talking, to the next person who then shows it to the next. This continues until the last person has seen it. They then tell the group what they think it was. What happened to the story? Did it stay the same?