After the write for rights event, our focus group moved to thinking about what to do for the family fair. We were debating doing some activities to engage everyone so they could learn more about refugees but not in the typical way of learning through posters or presentations which might be a bit more boring. we also thought about doing some other activity including the whole of high school where we would make a set-up around the campus so that people could follow the path and as they pass certain checkpoints, we would play audio recordings to stimulate different points in their migration path. However, because of remote learning, this all came to an end. Now we are just focusing on improving our portfolio and having discussions about refugees crises. Since being at home, I have also been trying to learn more about refugees and focusing more on laws and policies that affect refugees. I feel like this will help me be more active in the focus group and give better to discussions. I have also been able to learn a lot more about collaboration as I have had to work with many different people on projects which sometimes bring challenging due to the organisation aspect.

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This was the first year I have participated in the voices for refugees write for rights. I signed up to write the whole day and not stay for the overnight part. Our case studies this year were the Afghan refugees in Indonesia, EU refugees, access to education in the UK, women rights in Saudi Arabia and Vietnam human trafficking. I played a part in discussing some of these topics during service sessions and finalising what we would be talking about. this was a very interesting process for me as although I am in the GC, often I do not realise all the news regarding refugees. It was really interesting for me to look at all these case studies at the same time, so I could see similarities with all the different cases and how many refugees go through the same feelings although their individual experiences might be different. It was also a big eye-opener for me to see just how bad the impacts of wars or tight policies can have on a population but not only on the population of the country but also how it impacts countries around the world who take refugees in. It has made me realise more about government policies and the unfairness of impacts that laws have on populations. it has urged me to pay more attention to issues around the world and release the importance of having these conversations even though they might be uncomfortable. I also have learnt a bit more about communication during this experience because I have learnt a lot about other peoples perspectives and how to adapt to these kinds of situations where I have to consider other peoples opinions even though they might have differing views. Also, since we have students from all over the world, including places that have refugees, it was a big eye-opener to talk such people outside my focus group and share their experience in their home towns or with refugees themselves.

These are the boxes that we put our written letters in. The laptop beside the boxes is used as a number counter as letters are put in.

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