Summary: Students engage in a series of interactive activities in which they write a comfort/support letter to an owner of a wartime diary. A key aim is to foster empathy and an understanding of the process of growing up in harsh conditions such as war.
Main age group: 13-18
Time needed: 1 x 45-minute periods
Objectives:
- Observing the specifics of growing up in wartime.
- Recognize some severe consequences of war; life in exile, loss of home, growing up in a hotel/refugee camp.
- Learning about the importance of civil society organizations such as the aforementioned Caritas and others.
- Reflecting and discussing the consequences of wartime childhood, children’s suffering and the various circumstances that war can entail.
- Expressing a critical opinion about the effects of war events on childhood, on free play and pointing out the limited possibilities.
- Recognizing the responsibility of the community and strangers for the needs of others in wartime circumstances (accommodation, aid packages, inclusion, support).
Materials needed: Printed sheets with diary excerpts, pen, paper, additional material that presents the factual events of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (such as photos), tempera, acrylic, paper (A3, A5), markers.