KEEP CALM I AM A REFUGEE ! Erasmus Project

Project Title

KEEP CALM I AM A REFUGEE !

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Integration of refugees; Inclusion – equity; Migrants’ issues

Project Summary

Our primary goal when designing our project was to raise awareness about refugees. Because one third of children in European Union countries were immigrants or refugees. The most fundamental problem was the lack of access to communication, socialization and education. They did not have equal conditions with their peers. They were the children who came later. Their arrival was difficult to adapt to the schools. Because they had language problems. The other students were already prejudiced. The refugee children had experienced the destruction of war in their country, lost their beloved ones, eventually abandoned their homeland. They had come to our country and secured their lives, but now they faced different problems. These are; new language and communication problems, and adaptation to the new social environment they were in.It was necessary to make them feel comfortable and remove the psychology of humiliation they had experienced. So they could be happier and more successful.
We thought how we could help these kids in this situation.
– We had immigrant and refugee students in our school. First, we identified our target groups. The refugee students, the students in our school, the parents and the children. We did activities with these target groups. We have delivered the effect of our project to large masses.
– We started Turkish Language Course when the project started. We taught 4 hours a week. It was very important to teach Turkish to these students. Because the biggest problem for refugees was the problems which are due to lack of communication. As we continued our courses, we made interim evaluations and measured the successes. When their speaking skills were improved, they were accepted by their peers.
– Our teachers had problems too. They did not know how to treat these children and give them education. As the communication problems of the refugee students decreased, the academic achievement increased, the socialization problems decreased and the feelings of belonging increased. We kept their awareness constant by keeping them active in the project. When language problems also decreased, teachers’ communication with these students became stronger.
– To make our project visible to everyone; we created a project corner and panels at the most prominent place of the school.We exhibited all our activities there. There is also a panel on the outside and on the wall indicating that the name of the project, the names of the partners, logos and the coordinator of the school.
-We built a project club with our students. This club was active in all activities.
-We created a mail group, Whatsapp group, Facebook and project blog to communicate with our partners and evaluate the progress of the project. So we were able to communicate in such many ways. (https://wordpress.com/view/refugeerasmuplus.wordpress.com)
– We’ve done project dissemination work. We were also at the local and international press. Through the press we announced our project to a large audience. We were praised after people read our news. There was a lot of interest on our project.
– We completed all the activities we promised in the application form. As the coordinator, we directed all of our partners.
We made surveys. We measured our success by evaluating the questionnaire analyzes. According to the results we set our own route.
– We did two TPMs and three LTT activities. Our students and teachers were able to do international projects in these activities. Foreign languages ​​have developed. We had the opportunity to introduce our country and our project.
-We gave specific tasks to partners.The Netherlands and Romania were responsible for developing the project.Turkey was responsible for checking, Portugal cretaed the blog and checked it,Slovakia measured the impacts, Greece and Poland also evaluated the activities and made budget management.
-The refugees have the ability to speak, understand, write and read in Turkish. The feelings of strangers and exclusion were reduced. Academic achievements increased. They had a sense of belonging. Common awareness of the problem of refugees has increased over our target groups. Tolerance and Empathy on differences increased. Discrimination decreased. More understanding and responsibility for social, linguistic and cultural diversity has improved.
-The effects of the project in the long term are as follows; We will continue our language course. So we will resolve communication-related issues. Our school is capable of doing international projects. The success of our school was heard by the surrounding schools. Our students improved their involvement in the project activities and their sense of responsibility. We observe that they work with the same self-confidence at the schools that they went. Our project inspired other projects. We helped our colleagues who wanted help from us while doing projects on the subject of refugees. We gave them joint support and shared our eperiences.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 99095 Eur

Project Coordinator

Selcuk Yasar Alaybey Ortaokulu & Country: TR

Project Partners

• Agrupamento de Escolas de Vila Real de Santo Antonio
• Zakladna skola s materskou skolou
• 2nd Vocational High School of Giannitsa
• Scoala Gimnaziala Brazi
• Scuola Secondaria di primo grado Via Revel – Torino
• Stichting Carmel College
• Zespol Szkoly Podstawowej nr 2 i Przedszkola w Zagnansku