TRAINING IS ALREADY STARTING...

Maja Maček, the Croatian special needs teacher, has been on the traininig "PROVIDING PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT FOR MIGRANT CHILDREN IN SCHOOL".

Next November, she will share her experience with all the teachers involved in the project.

Here you can find some important aspects we would like to share with you.

Specific difficulties migrants children are facing

• From the countries they are coming : violence, exile, family lost, traumas caused by fear, lack of food and,…

• Travel routs: by foot or by boat, facing weather conditions on the way, possible death, coming without legal documents, increase possibility for human trafficking 

• Countries of their first residence: bad living conditions, low quality of life 

• Cultural problems: language barrier, different eating habits, they need to accept new culture and maintain their own, stigmatization of the society 

Why is important  to accept migrant children and to work with them?

• Refugee crises are rarely quickly solved – nearly 20 years so most people stay in the countries

• Isolation lead to poverty and ghettoization and radicalization, people stays on the social support for a long time which leads to violence increase.

How to prepare school enviornment and why?

• Tolerance and acceptance of differences are crucial human values

• Education is human right, nor a privilege, and one good structured school program is one of the most important way to heal traumas among children (children needs: structure, integration, sense of activity, peer to peer communication)

• Holistic approach– the results are better if we work with whole families

- support for parents -  helping with documentation, translatation, show respect toward other culture and customes, involve support of local comunity)

-  support for children- language learning, organise welcome clases, and prepare activities with food of their origin counties, make suveniers of their origin countries, prepare presentations of their origin countries

Advantages of inclusive education

• For migrant children: it gives them sense of belonging, it makes a sense of normalization and regular life routine, improve social skills and friendships

• For domestic people: opportunity for learning about differences, increase tolerance, improve respect for other cultures and habits, improves empathy and ability for helping

• For teachers: develop a sense and respect for differences, improves creativity and problem - solving,  develop team work and personal responsibility

• For local community: promotion of human rights, develop equality like a human value, increase socialization, prevent unacceptable behaviors

We also recommend to watch this video,

The labels we put on refugee & migrant children matter | UNICEF