My story — Alon

Next week, Melissa and I are heading out to visit people along the refugee routes of Europe and offer what we can in response to the humanitarian crisis on our doorstep. In the last few days I’ve been reflecting a lot on what this project means for me, why I want to do something and why I feel like I can.

I think a big part of the responsibility I feel to do something comes from the story of my family and my Judaism. I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the plight of my family as refugees, and through learning in my community I have learnt about social justice and looking out for people less fortunate than myself. I think the story of Judaism as a whole is deeply linked to that of the refugee, and from this I know that I want to be part of a movement that helps people build themselves a new life in the way my family managed to.

To do this we must respond to this crisis with sharing, learning, community-building and face-to-face human contact.

I have spent the last few years exploring how we can create spaces where people feel comfortable and safe to learn, often reflecting on personal experiences and deeply-held beliefs. Playing with engaging, interactive and creative methods to facilitate learning and educating, I’ve learnt huge amounts: I’ve heard perspectives I could never imagine, learnt to be creative and critical, learnt listening, empathy, self-care, and learnt a responsibility to the people I share space with. And I’ve seen the importance of space, time and human relationships in the processes of learning.

Hannah Arendt describes her personal experience of being a refugee as like losing your place in the world — she talks about feeling ‘unwanted’ and ‘superfluous’ to the world. When I went to the camp in Calais last year I saw this process of dehumanisation first hand. I can’t even begin to imagine what that’s like. But what I have also seen is the effect learning can have to combat this. By creating spaces where people from different backgrounds can come together, learn from each other, have fun and build relationships and communities, you show people they are wanted and useful. You give people purpose, help them find belonging, and help them to feel human again. Education can help people create their place in the world.

What we aim to do is understand how and when this happens for displaced people, and what our communities can do to facilitate more of it. And I hope that along the way we will make new friends, discover new skills, learn new languages and build new communities of people who want to share and learn.

If you have any ideas of things we can do, places we can visit, or want to join us along the way, please get in contact! My email is alon@crisisclassroom.com. You can follow our journey on facebook and instagram too.

And if you can spare us some money to help us get there, you can find our crowdfunder here: https://chuffed.org/project/crisis-classroom. Thank you!