Overall, this project was eye-opening but immensely enjoyable. The group work facilitated great discussion and a way to tease out and digest some of the research our individual teams completed. We divided up the stories into teams which worked out perfectly. It was interesting to see the different styles emerge within the one team. The diversity of ideas and openness made it much more engaging to participate. Personally, the group made it easy and enjoyable to share ideas, something I find difficult in group settings. So, I learned to engage more with the help of my group. (Olivia)
My group is made of different age groups, ethnicity, and educational background, not only that we generously share our talents, but there was also openness to learn from each other. I experienced talented individuals that were eager to achieve their goal, which made the project successful as we shared our diverse knowledge. Some of us are task-oriented, fixer and practical, idea persons, and thoughtful.
It is widely said that group work enables one to grow, this I experienced in our teamwork and researching the cause of forced migration has helped me have more insight into refugee’s and asylum seekers experiences. (Chinenye)
Our project on forced migration allowed us to experience the power of storytelling. Each individual migration story we listened to and included in our group project gave us insight into someone else’s lived experience. This allowed us collectively and individually to develop a stronger understanding and empathy for the reasons for forced migration. The way we responded to the stories we encountered in our group work and the glimpses of our classmates’ reactions during our online presentation reinforced how transformative the acts of listening to and reflecting on someone else’s lived experience can be. (Shauna)
I am delighted to work with the Forced Migration group as it created the opportunity to meet people from different cultures and ideologies. The different skills displayed by each person were supportive, and the process of engaging in the specific forced migration stories staged me to think about the different challenges people face. For example, a young girl migrated from Sierra Leone to Ireland in order not to be subjected to Female genital mutilation. The division of labour, teamwork and weekly google meet conferences facilitated the process of the project. Moreover, individual contributions, suggestions, and participation were tremendously recognized and respected. People were carried along in every decision-making process encountered through the different communication platforms created and none of us worked alone. The lectures we had on Forced migration, transformative storytelling for social change, Belbin’s (2021) team roles, gender and sexual identity and development including many others helped us to navigate our way. Again, the interviews conducted and the review of some literature as well as personal stories shared and read enhanced our work. On the other hand, we found it difficult to meet at the same time especially at the initial time because of network and individual programs, but we later created more communication platforms that liberated us from the situation. Finally, I have learned some technical skills from the group work, for instance, how to create and organize conferences online. I am more informed on the benefits of teamwork, some global issues, and the need to work for sustainability and help others do so. I feel more empowered to advocate for refugees, violation of human rights like FGM on women, and other societal harm to human life. I feel obliged to be more sensitive to other people’s needs, also to be more inclusive, and understanding in my relationships with other people. As a candidate of global citizenship education and development, I am challenged to facilitate students to take action for a more just and sustainable world through community sensitization, workshops, seminars, and storytelling programs. (Cecilia)
These stories illustrated the shared humanity of those affected by forced migration, globally and across history. Whether the causes are natural disasters, political or economic, there is an enormous human impact on individuals, families and communities affected by forced migration. The statistics of forced migration are stark: 1% of the world’s population is displaced, the vast majority of those are hosted by neighbouring countries and Ireland only hosts a minute percentage of migrants. However, it is the powerful personal stories, of Bashar, the girl from Sierra Leone, Raphael and the Lillis family that are so powerful and moving. These stay with us and remind us that the individual is not responsible and in a different time or place, we could be faced with a similar situation. (Nuala)
My reflection on working with the individuals was that we worked as a team so we could put all our stories together. I don’t believe there has ever been a greater need for creative thinking around thinking globally and acting locally. The diversity in the group was great and everyone contributed in the way that they could. Being able to connect with the others, in both my project group and the wider class, was/is an important element in playing as a team and showing what can get done if we put our minds to it. We leveraged technology and looking at many possibilities on how things could be done. I enjoyed our workshop class to inspire alternatives to what we had already considered. One person’s action or inaction can make the difference. As a smaller group we were able to connect regularly to discuss possibilities on how to share our stories of Forced Migration. We were able to develop a glimpse of a global challenge for human civilization as well as sharing that the starting point is thinking and caring about everyone as part of this human race. We aimed to ensure that the thread of thinking about actions was threaded throughout to ensure that it is not passive. (Jessica)
It was interesting working with the group. There was mutual respect and we made effort to listen to everybody’s opinion. Dividing ourselves into subgroups made the project to be organized and easy. Our weekly group meetings made communication easy and gave us the opportunity to constantly review our plans. Although, we did not mention a particular framework in the presentation, human right, migration, colonialism and post- colonialism theory and gender inequalities are some of the frameworks on which our project was based.
We had a good interaction among us, and members spontaneously took up role. Having a WhatsApp group and meeting on google meet made communication easy. Our members were committed to the project. I attended the group meetings and worked with my partner on the Togo story. I also took part in presenting the group work. Meeting online was a challenge, at times the internet connection of some of the member will be unstable. I learned the importance of flexibility. We were flexible and accommodating and allowed everyone to work at their pace. Having a regular meeting made it possible to evaluate a project and gave us enough room to rectify any deviation. I feel enlightened working on this project with my group and I believe that our work went well and will be beneficial not only to us but to the public because if its anti-racism and anti-migrant stance. (Nwanneka)
The project was very insightful. It was great to work as a group and develop the stories to share the experience of forced migration. I think, the biggest revelation was the number of refugees in the world and vast amount of reasons for that.
The group and I worked closely on getting the stories, we wanted to ensure that the audience will get the same reaction as we did when we started looking into them. We wanted to show how the world is affected by forced migration and mainly what had it been caused by.
I really enjoyed working with a such a diverse group and be surrounded by great people. It was great as it was an open space and we were able to interchange ideas and develop the concept. Through teamwork we were able to prepare a presentation together that taught us a lot. The experience was enjoyable and at the same time very powerful. We were able to experience the story telling and its effects. (Rana)
