FECCOO (Spain) invites students to put themselves in refugees' shoes
As part of its efforts to advocate for migrants’ and refugees’ rights in Spain, the Federación Estatal de Enseñanza de Comisiones Obreras (FECCOO) is carrying out a series of school-based capacity building projects, in collaboration with three education institutions in Catalonia, the Basque and the Valencian Communities. The different activities aim to sensitize and empower local communities, through teachers, students and parents’ associations, in order to promote a rights-based approach and a truly welcoming attitude towards displaced adult and children.
In Mislata (Valencia), the union collaborates with IES La Morería in a "photocall" initiative in which adolescents are given the opportunity to reflect on what it might be like to be a refugee, by putting on a life jacket and trying to express what they would feel if they had to flee their homes and their countries, risking their lives and leaving everything behind, including school experiences that can hardly be recovered. Through this activity, students get information, reflect and debate on the rights of refugees and forcibly displaced persons. The entire school community of the IES La Morería is participating and the project team is planning similar activities outside the school, to multiply its impact on the broader local community.
Aware of the transformative power of education, with this kind of initiatives, FECCOO intends to support local teachers to mobilise their schools, communities and municipalities in favor of all refugees, forcibly displaced persons, stateless persons, asylum seekers, refugees and migrants.
