“Today, we will talk about the country Syria, the situation of Syrian after the war started, and our own experiences as living in Japan as refugees.” They began their lecture with cheerful smile.

In self-introduction, Aslan introduced himself that he is a K1 fighter in Japan, and Jamal told them that he is a national soccer team player in Syria. “Really? That’s cool!” students surprised with unexpected facts about the lecturers.

Aslan and Jamal met when they were in an elementary school. Then, they grew up together in Syria as a friend.
After both of them turned 20 in 2011, the civil war started and they became refugees. They left the country together and arrived Japan at last. They are both now living in Japan.

They showed pictures of their homes in Syria which were attacked by air strikes and themselves admitted to the hospital soon after they arrived in Japan. Aslan and Jamal spoke how hard that time was with humors and smiles.

Then, they presented about Syria through photos of the beautiful sceneries of tourist destinations and mouth-watering cuisines. Students were interested in unusual facts about Syria, and actively raised their hands for questions. There were a lot of laughs to the humorous responses from Aslan and Jamal.

“However, in such a wonderful place, what’s happened?”

Syria’s civil war is said that religious conflict was the cause. “When the civil war began, even good friends from yesterday was a fear because they are the opponent of my own religion. However, we are the same human beings. I believe there should not be a conflict just because religion is different”.

Sparkling town with the bombs, crying father who lost his family, children lost in the street… When the video projected the reality of Syria, students were surprised from its cruelty, but never stopped staring the screen from beginning to end.

“People who died in the civil war were up to 47 million people. This war made 400 million refugees.”

Even though we hear dark news on a daily basis, “We believe that someday the world will become one and will be peace” Aslan and Jamal asserted.
With this strong feelings in their chests, they are currently working as a member of the “White Heart for Syria”. They are presenting the current state of Syria, sending the donations collected at charity events, and working on many other activities to the people of the motherland.

“There are children who are living in a location that no one knows when they might die. There is no school so they cannot write even a character. Please thank what is there in front of you now, and please enjoy every single moments of your life.”
Students received the strong message from two who to overcome the difficulties to commit to their home country.

After the lecture, students divided into teams and discussed about the theme of ” Responses to Syrian Refugees in Japan”.
“Japan has declined to 99 percent of refugee applications from Syria,” “Japan is supporting the 160 billion yen to Syria” based on the information given, students exchanged thoughts and opinions.

“There are really few refugees who Japan accepts.”, “What else did Japanese Government do besides accepting refugees?” “What refugees at the first place !?”.
The students expanded their discussions from refugee problems in Syria to problems in Japan, believing that this issue is closely associated with the country Japan itself.

Based on the discussion, each groups asked one questions to two lecturers.

“Why does Japan just give so much money?”, “How do you think Japan will accept more refugees at once? “, two lecturers responded with more enthusiasm than the lecture.

This time, the students explored what Japan can do for Syria, stating that it is a problem for the same human beings.
Receiving energies from two real experiences not only from shared information, they strengthened their sympathy for the wish of “one world and peace “.

【Lecturer Profile】

Aslan
Born in Damascus, Syria. He is a professional kickboxer used to play with the national team. He studied Law at the Damascus University. After two years from the war has started he moved with my family to Turkey and stayed there for almost two years after that he came here to Japan and started the White heart for Syria project.

Jamal
Also born in Damascus, Syria. Arrived in Japan with his mother and sisters and were accepted as refugees in 2013. In Syria he was a university student and soccer player. He is currently studying to return to university in Japan. With Aslan, he is working on “White heart for Syria project”.

On this day the theme of the class was human rights and the landmines problem. World Studies is offered in both Japanese and English, and is part of the history, geography and civics department.

In the Japanese WS class the students formed groups, and discussed related themes about human rights from different points of view: for, against or hard to judge. Each group summarized and delivered their ideas, which was then followed by a full class discussion.

“Isn’t this discrimination?” “One can choose if do or not, so, it’s a right, isn’t it?　” Everyone shared their frank opinions, and actively talked on them, agreeing at times and finding the difference of each view at other times.

In the English class the students watched a documentary video reporting a girl’s life in a developing country. All were concentrating on it in order not to miss the points.

After watching the video, they divided into groups of three, wrote their opinions, and shared them with the class.

During fourth period, both the Japanese and English WS classes combined to assess their prior knowledge about landmines, which would be the subject of the following class.

After watching a documentary video reporting the damages caused by landmines, Seth, the WS English teacher, gave a power point presentation about de-mining or landmine removal procedures. Students learned about the technical aspects of landmine use, types of landmines used, and the dangers they pose in post-conflict countries.