The activity of writing the second part of our mascot story was done with our students of year 7. As a preparation for this activity we read a simplified version of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. In  class, students were asked which freedoms they find especially important. In small groups, in form of discussion, they selected freedom of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion as especially important. We watched three short documentaries by BBC news about migrants from Syria trying to start their new life in Germany. We also watched a documentary about a migrant from Egypt who opened a barber shop in Zagreb and started his life in Croatia.

Students discussed the following issues: Why do people migrate? How do people feel about foreign workers coming to your city? A child moves to another part of the country with her/his family. Give a list of 3 positive and 3 negative effects and give reasons for one of each. This discussion was an incentive to imagine our mascot, Cosmo, telling us a story about a child migrating from one part of the world to another. Students had a task to write stories. We read them in class and had students choose the best one. They chose the story written and illustrated by our student Nola - A Girl from Afghanistan. It is about a nine-year-old girl, Kamisha, who moves to Europe because of the war and finds it difficult to make new friends. Through this activity we wanted to strengthen our students’ social and civic competences. We managed to have our students empathize with children who lost their homes and even families, which is an important step toward accepting people of other nationalities and religions as equal.

Read the story HERE.