And we successfully started our year from an information hour for pupils on refugee issues. On January 11, 2016 an open lesson for pupils of the 5th form took place at Minsk Gymnasium #42 by Nobel Prize Winner Z. Alferov. Increasing the cultural awareness of refugee problems was stated as the main goal of the lesson. In general, the information hour was aimed at raising the acknowledgement on the problems which representatives of other nationalities face coming to Belarus. Prevention of latent discrimination is also amidst the core ideas of the lesson.
Liubou Kravets, INA “Evolutio” Public Information Assistant, and Darya Bohdan, INA “Evolutio” Information Support Assistant, delivered their speeches within the framework of the open lesson. In an accessible and interactive form L. Kravets presented the information titled “Refugees: Who Are They?” familiarizing pupils with such terms as “refugee”, “migration”, “tolerance”, “mercy”, “integration”. D. Bohdan briefly touched upon the topic the United Nations and its agencies’ activity in the world. L. Kravets also spoke with children about stereotypes in society in respect to representatives of other nationalities and gave several examples of how it is important not to hurry with conclusions regarding something or somebody not having delved into the gist of the problem.
Within the framework of the event children received hand-out materials: brochure “Refugees: Who Are They?”, postcards with images of prominent refugees and calendars prepared by the INA “Evolutio”. The pupils liked the information hour. They were vividly answering to the questions, discussing the problems and asking their questions of concern.