Due Friday 12/7/07
Since you heard two stories of teenagers who have immigrated here from Sierra Leone, your assignment is to go to to the site beyondthefire.net and listen to a third teen refugee story.
As we did in class, you are to document the following from the teens experience:
Home Life (Family Structure and relationships)
Education (Condition of schools and access to education)
Economic Conditions (Financially stability, access to jobs)
Social Life (Relationships with friends, quality of social life, social status)
Other information (Anything else that is interesting to compare)
With this information, compare the subjects experiences to your own. What differences and similarities do you see.
Also, once you watch the story on beyondthefire.net, you are expected to complete the activity. In order to do so, you must register with the site.
If you have any questions, please post them here or email me at iburgos2@schools.nyc.gov
Ms. B
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11 comments:
i don't understand what you want us to blog about?
matt
Conor McGinn
Jelena Serenac from Bosnia:
Home Life:
The war on Bosnia began when Jelena was just 3 1/2 years old. Even though she never knew exactly what was going on, she knew that something was wrong. Often her parents would go out and her and her siblings never knew if they would come home alive.
Education:
Though she had access to school, she had to walk everyday. She explains the experience of having alarms and sirens go off on her walk, or during school, and having to duck and be sure everything was okay.
Economic Conditions:
She doesn't explain anything of her family's economic conditions, or that of her community's.
Social Life:
Though not explained much, her social life could not have been great, considering all people lived in fear of war, and being killed in crossfire. She had friends at school, but life was made tense by the war.
Other Information:
She lived her life worrying about war the entire time.
I don't really see any similarities between our lives. She lived most of her life in fear and war, and I don't know anything about politics. We have led two very different lives.
Loretta Au
December 6, 2007
Lila Fara- Somalia
HOME LIFE
• Lila was 8 years old when her father took the family to safety in Kenya where they lived in a refugee camp. The U.S. granted them refugee status in 1996.
• Had a sister
• Dad was in jail when people knocked on their door
EDUCATION
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
• House was burned when people came to take them away
SOCIAL LIFE
• A junior and likes to play basketball
OTHER INFORMATION
• Shot in the leg because of curiosity
There are no similarities between Lila and I besides the fact that we’re about the same age. I’ve never been through the fear and hardships she has experienced at such a young age.
sorry, but everytime im try to make an account the website freezes. maybe i can try again tomorrow? i've tried over a spanof 3 hours but its still freezing when i try to sign up.
by the way, this is Melissa Coughlin.
Sylvia Shojai
The story I listened to on the website was of Shaima Abdul. She is a seventeen year old girl who lived in Afghanistan until the Taliban took over, and she was forced to flee to Atlanta, Georgia in 2001. She lived in Kabul with her mother, father, and three brothers. It says that she went to school for the first time in Atlanta when she came to America, and that she attends Clarkston High School. But when listening to her story it says she went to school in Afghanistan until the Taliban soldiers said the girls had to go home and should not return to school. Her family was faced with economic struggles, such as not having enough money to rescue her father. He was beat and taken away to jail under the control of the Taliban. They demanded that her family make a payment so that he could be released. Shaima’s mother went several times, but still did not have enough money to free him. It was heartbreaking, but they had no other choice then to wait six months, then leave him behind and move to Pakistan. In Pakistan her mother worked for two months until she lost her job. Then Shaima and her brothers learned how to weave carpets to support them. They started working at 4am and ended at 11pm; it took them one and half months to finish a small carpet and ten months to make a large carpet. She was only ten years old and her brothers were ten, nine, and eight. Every two months they made 200 dollars, which was good money for living in Pakistan during that time.
I made a passport account on the website and posted a response to the question there. Unfortunately it said that only members with 15 stamps had their responses posted and it said that I did not have any, so it did not go through for some reason.
I spoke about how I was surprised when I heard the language she was speaking in the background because I could understand it. It is Farsi, the language that my Iranian family speaks. Hearing her story I was moved to tears because hearing it in my own language made me feel so connected to her, and it was such a sad story to begin with. They took her father away to prison and then they never heard from him again, and then they left the country to escape the Taliban. My Iranian family has a similar story; they had to flee Iran when the Islamic Revolution broke out. They came to America and had to start over and basically rebuild their lives. Both of these stories are inspiring to me because they both Shaima and my family had to face danger to protect their families. They made a change that affected their entire lives and had to work in a new country to stay in safety and protect their family from the governments that went corrupt.
Everytime i try to download the flashplayer to listen to the interview it doesn't work. This is Mac.
Karmila Saulong
Facia Carter- Liberia
Home life
Facia lived with her family in Liberia during a war. Her life wasn’t normal she had to run form one place to another. She always had to change homes because of the rebels. She would wake up not knowing what would happen. She would worry if she would survive or not. They lived in constant fear about if they would live one day to die the next
Education
At age 13 or 14 she had to go to school and come straight home because of the violence.
The war would cause schools to close down and the school would write the parents to warn kids not to be out that day. The warning could be from days to weeks. Some students were 20 years old because the war would prevent them from continuing.
Economic condition
There were no faucets or such things as running water. She had to go to the well everyday after school to get water and sometimes the water wouldn’t come for a long time. No electricity was available so she had to buy candles.
Social life
Some days she couldn’t go outside to play because of the danger that she could be killed by anyone at anytime.
Other info
Had to study with a candle as light.
The only similarities we have are that we go to school and are the same age. I haven’t had the experience of living life thinking I might die because of rebels. I think of danger in the world but not in the sense that school has to be closed down for weeks because of people who are out to kill innocent people. She also studied with a candle while I have electricity. It is sad to know how unfortunate she was growing up as a child.
Yasmeen Sweatte
Block G
12.10.07
Name/Nationality: Abou Sangare
Source:www.beyondthefire.net
Home Life: Lived w/ mother,father and, brother
Education: Is a sophomore at an International High in the Bronx
Economic Conditions: Worked in a camp when he was captured and his mother cooked in the camp.
Social Life: N/A
Other Information: Father was at a mosque when they were captured. UN troops burned camp and, rescued him and his mother.
My Comments: Myself and Abou share no similarities. He has lived his life fighting in war and, living in fear. I've never experienced the things he did as a teenager.
After listening to 2 stories from girls that lived in sierra leone. I learned that there lives were pretty stable before the war.
homelife: they lived with most of their family.
education:They had access to education. one girl went to a private school.
Social life:they had friends or many cousins they played with.
economic conditions:okay, they weren't rich but they could afford the cost of living.
Fatma, Iraq, Female
Home life:Lived with both parents and 2 brothers.
education:doesn't mention
economic conditions: lived in a city.
other: left her little brother behind because it was too late to get him out of Iraq.
BESERTA OSMANI FROM KOSOVO, SERBIA
Home Life (Family Structure and relationships)
Beserta has two brothers and two sisters and is living with all four in the Bronx.
Education (Condition of schools and access to education)
No information about the education received in the homeland was present. Beserta is now a nineteen year old senior at Leighman High School in the Bronx. She has been in America for nine years and attending school here for that time period.
Economic Conditions (Financially stability, access to jobs)
Beserta attends high school. Back home it seems as though her family was a middle class family.
Social Life (Relationships with friends, quality of social life, social status)
no information on social life is given
Other information (Anything else that is interesting to compare)
Serbia and Montenegro is about the size of Kentucky and has been having serious civil problems through out its history. About 160,000 Serbians in the world are refugees that left due to civil violence. It is a very dangerous country and has been at a standstill in economic growth. Only 4% of the population use the internet.
*Very limited information is provided on the information that we had to find out.
I was never thrown out of my house.
I didn't experience war.
I never had to flee.
I was never scared.
WE HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON.
+ i don't understand: "
Also, once you watch the story on beyondthefire.net, you are expected to complete the activity. In order to do so, you must register with the site."
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