The problem of refugees and displaced persons in the world is one of the most complex issues the international community deals with nowadays. This has been deeply discussed in the United Nations, who are still looking for effective means to protect and aid this vulnerable groups, victims of human rights violations.

In Portugal, more than 927 refugees, from different nationalities (Syria, Iraq, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia), have already arrived from Egypt and Turkey.

On March 4th 2022, the students of 5th and 6th grades, from Instituto Nun’Alvres, INA, from Colégio das Caldinhas, had the possibility to get to know and interview a Sirian family of refugees, the Ateka family. Alamir, the father, Hend, the mother, and the children Abdul and Batoul arrived to Lisbon in May 2016, after running from the war in Syria. The Atekas is one of the families which Portuguese institutions seek to welcome and integrate in our society. This aim has been fulfilled, the family feels fitted in and well-integrated, since they arrived six years ago, escaping war in Alepo, and after spending some time in a Greek refugee camp.

The main goal of this activity is for students to have contact with different realities and cultures, as well as to cultivate feelings of empathy and acceptance, respect and tolerance towards difference, instead of hostility. For that, the students got the chance of asking this family some questions about their experience and present life.

This interview is a result of a collaborative and interdisciplinary work of TIC (Technologies), Critical Thinking and Citizenship and Development subjects, using Project-Based Learning, in which the students developed a work about Human Rights and their violations.