Discussion Plan for Parents

Discussion Guide: How to talk to your child about the Rohingya refugee experience

As adults, talking to children about refugee experiences and genocide may intitially seem intimidating because we know the tragedy that refugees regularly face in the pursuit of safety. Children who are unfamiliar with these experiences however, approach the topics with curiosity rather than fear.

Here are some helpful tips:

• Familiarize yourself with the terms and definitions on the following page. This will help you feel more comfortable answering your child’s potential questions. The definitions provided are simplified in order to make it easier for children to comprehend.
• Read the book “Hayma’s Journey: Burma to Portland, Oregon” with your child. The word in the vocabulary list mentioned above, are based on words in the book. When you encounter one of the words, you might want to ask your child if they know what it means. This prepares them for hearing the same word in a different context (ie. the news, listening to parents). Odds are, your child has already heard these terms before, but now you have the opportunity to influence how they perceive them.
• Ask your child questions that help them relate to the characters in the story. Below is a list of questions:
  • “Who here has moved homes before?”
  • “How old were you”
  • “Did you move to a different town? State? Country?”
  • “Why did you move?”
  • “What did it feel like to leave?” If students need help, prompt them with “Were you excited, nervous, sad?”
  • “What did it feel like to arrive in a new place?” “Did you move to a new school”
  • “Do you call the new place home?”
  • “Can you have multiple homes?”
  • “Do you know anyone who used to live in a country other than the United States?”
  • “Why do you think they moved to the U.S.?”
  • “What do you think that they felt when they moved?”
• When your child inevitably asks a questions that you are not sure how to answer, return to the above idea of home. Discussions about refugees and genocide are discussions of what it means to have a home, a safe space, and a sense of comfort, taken away.
• Your child does not have the same emotional associations with refugees and genocide that you do. Answer their questions with logic. For example, if they ask “What does genocide mean?” They are not imagining the atrocities acted on the Jewish, Rohinyga, Rwandan, Japanese, and Indigenous people all over the world. Listen and focus on answering specifically what they ask: “genocide is when a group of people are killed unfairly.” Keep it simple and don’t make it a big deal. Children understand the concepts of fairness and death better than we realize.
• Keep in mind that your child will eventually learn of the horrific events of genocides, but the goal for elementary school age children is to establish a basis of understanding of words and concepts, rather than the gory details. This prepares them for a deeper understanding of events down the road.

Relevant Vocabulary

Home	a place where someone lives or is familiar. This does not have to be where they are originally from
Identity	characteristics that people use to describe themselves. For example, culture, gender, and where they are from.
Separation	the act of keeping things apart.
Chinlone	a traditional sport in Burma that looks like hacky sack with a small soccer ball. In Burmese Chinlone means rounded basket because the ball is woven like a basket.
Oppress	use of power over someone else to make them feel uncomfortable.
Religion	a set or system of attitudes, beliefs, and ways of doing things.
Persecute	to continuously treat someone in a way meant to be cruel or harmful especially because of their race, political, or religious beliefs.
Immigrant	a person who moves to a different country to live.
Refugee	a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.
Refugee Camp	a temporary place to live when multiple people leave their homes because they were in danger.
Asylum	a refugee who is legally allowed to move to a new country because they might be persecuted (hurt) otherwise
Citizenship	legal recognition by the government that someone is allowed to live in a country and be a part of the community.
Stateless	not recognized as a citizen of any country.

Definitions derived from Google Dictionary and Merriam Webster’s Children’s Dictionary