I really didn't know that about migration. Our Hello Czech Republic workshops are a hit with students!

"I never want to migrate!" That was the reaction of one teenager to our Hello Czech Republic workshop, where we talk to elementary school students about migration. We discuss what it’s like to be a refugee in a foreign country, without friends, extended family, or a favorite teacher. Last year, a total of 331 students went through the workshop, and we will continue these sessions this year.

Due to the war in Ukraine, tens of thousands of Ukrainian children have entered Czech schools over the past two years. Integrating them into the classroom and the student body is not always easy. To help foster mutual understanding between Czech and Ukrainian children, we organize roughly two-hour sessions at schools that introduce teenagers to the stories of refugees in a non-confrontational way. The Hello Czech Republic project also provides students with various facts and figures related to migration so they can form their own opinions on topics where there is a lot of misinformation circulating in the public sphere.

At the same time, we want students to gain greater understanding and empathy for their—no longer so new—classmates from Ukraine. "We are very happy that we managed to establish contact with schools and engage their students enough that workshops were held repeatedly at those schools," says the project coordinator at Slovo 21. For the first workshops in 2023, we partnered with two schools: the Secondary Industrial School of Chemistry in Pardubice and the Písnická Elementary School in Prague 4. The first 12 workshops took place in November and December: "Our lecturers met with nearly 350 students, and by all accounts, the students learned information they had no idea about before," adds Pudilová.

"We are very happy that we managed to establish contact with schools and engage their students enough that workshops were held repeatedly at those schools," says the project coordinator at Slovo 21.

Student feedback shows that they were most interested in information about the reception of migrants, such as how many people apply for asylum and how many actually receive it. One student summed up the whole process by saying, "it's just too stressful." We will continue the Hello Czech Republic sessions in 2024. If your school is interested, please contact us at info@slovo21.cz. The sessions are designed for upper-elementary and high school students.

Hello Czech Republic workshops are held as part of the Support for the Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic 2024 project, funded by the UNHCR.