Citizenship Foundation: educating for effective citizenship

Working with Kosovan refugees

Young people across the full age range (11-18), co-ordinated an awareness and fund-raising campaign to support Kosovan refugees.

Target age:  11 - 18

Young people across the full age range of King Solomon High School (11-18) a Jewish comprehensive school in Redbridge, co-ordinated an awareness and fund-raising campaign to support Kosovan refugees. Some of the students were particularly affected by the plight of Kosovan Albanians because the people of Albania hid and rescued so many Jews during the Nazi Holocaust.

In 1999 students organised assemblies which included local young refugees talking about their experiences. They ran a raffle, quizzes, a staff fitness test tournament and break time bucket collections including a special one on Shoah (Holocaust) day. An exhibition was mounted for the library, press reports were sent out to local papers, shops in the school community were invited to donate gifts as prizes, families were called upon to give clothes, toys and books which were transported to Kosova. Feeder primary schools, synagogues and youth groups in the area joined in the fundraising efforts. Ways of opening the school's sports and IT facilities were discussed.

Contact was made with a primary school which existed in an apartment in Prishtina, the capital of Kosova and the King Solomon students decided to send help there as well as to support local refugees. Their target was to collect £2000 and they succeeded in raising £1800.