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A few weeks ago I left my home country because of the bad situation me and my family were facing. The school was closed so I was not able to get any education. We were constantly starving because my parents could not buy any food after the bomb attack. It feels okay to be in a safe country but the bomb attacks me and my parents have experienced is something I am usually thinking about and I must say it is a big struggle. I suppose I have to live with that trauma.

A good thing is that I will probably not experience anything like that again as long as I stay here in my new country but moving to a new country is not as easy as people might think. Yesterday I was walking to the soccer field for my first training in the local soccer club. I was so nervous and I did not know how I were supposed to act when I was going to meet the other kids in the team.

I had some big trouble when the trainer tried to have a conversation with me or give me instructions because I do not understand the language very well. The other kids was looking at me in a strange way. Is it because I do not act in a certain way? Is it because I am not a part of their culture? Is it because I have a different religion or simply just because of the fact that I am a refugee? I do not know but I feel so homesick.

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My name is Abdul 30 years old, and this is my store as an refuge traveling across Europe, to begin a new life.

In May 2015 my home in Aleppo was bombed, as an part of getting isis out of Aleppo city. The fowling days after my family and I was very shock about the situation, and didn’t really know what to do. After a week, we realized that we forced   to escape form our lovely home city, that have been transformed to a nightmare of a warzone. In the beginning we didn’t know where to move to, but we just started to travel by foot across the turkey’s boarder.  After 3 month of traveling we finally arrived to our new home country Denmark. The trip was a hell of a nightmare, we didn’t got enough sleep a lot, we didn’t got enough food or water and then we finally arrived to the boarder of Europe, we were treated by animals.

Now we are finally in Denmark, where we started a totally new life, in a totally other culture as we were used to. In Denmark they are really taking care of the weak people, and help them with their problems. But not everything is as good as it sounds. We still don’t feel welcome the our new country.

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It’s been two years now since I have to flee out of my country. Usually people say that time heals but in this case I can’t say that’s true.  Time passes by and I still feel like a completely outsider.
Every day is like if I were living a lie, I’m not who I want to be, where I want to be and especially with whom I want to be. I miss every single one thing of my country but I know for my god and my family’s that I had to leave.
A friend of mine told me: 'I think probably what’s worth is that I feel misunderstood, I look into the people eyes and I know that they would never be able to understand what I’m going through'.
It’s just the way things are, we are alone when it comes to the pain we refugees feels from the moment we wake up to the moment we close our eyes and try not to have nightmares regarding the war that it’s hunting down my native fellow friends.

If only people could empathize with us, if only they knew how to help us, if only there were peace on earth… But of course that’s a lot to ask, so we have to settle with what we have, which as a matter of fact, is less than what we should have.

I must say, I’m not a religious person, I’ve never been one. I always said we don’t need to believe in a someone whose above us when we can believe in ourselves. And I for instance don’t want to lose faith in us because if I do, then what’s next?

How can we keep going with our lives when we don’t believe in a better future, when we don’t see a way out of this?

I lost countless of friends, family members, neighbors due to the war, but I lost more people because of the homesickness they felt, the loneliness, the sadness…

I won’t give up, I have to stay strong for my family and for those who feel like they are losing their minds. We should all, give strength to the ones who need it the most, I can’t and we shouldn’t let refugees suffer anymore.

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I'm Maria Vitoria, I'm 16 years old, I moved from Brazil and today I'm here to tell my story about my experience as refugee in Australia. It's very hard to get used to a new home country because the culture is very different, we don't have the same foods that we have in Brazil, everything tastes different and people are different also, we also face lots of trouble with prejudice, because sometimes when you say you're Brazilian people only think that you like to party, that you stay in the beach all day and hate working, but during this time of the year we are facing a huge crisis in Brazil, we are in that situation since 2010 but now it grew up in a drastic way. In august we unfortunately have an impeachment that was more like a coup d'etat covert, they took Dilma out of the presidency and her vice Michel Temer entered, but he is messing up our country in a way that no one from other countries can imagine. About three months ago he offered a a new law to change the constitution and froze money to education and health for 20 yeas, instead of send money on education and health, he's sending money to build JAILS and we also pay a lot of taxes (27,5% per month) and instead of build new hospitals and raise the salary of the teachers, they steal it to themselves. We also have very bad roads to drive in the country, the BR 101 and the BR 116 must pass through a reform, because they are the most busy roads in Brazil, which connects South to North and in some places, for example to Rio Grande's port - RS (one of the most busy and important port in Brazil) has only one way to go and one way to back. They should send money to build new roads, Brazil is such a nice place to live but we have so big issues. Other countries also don't accept us because of the education and because they think we are not going to be able to pay our bills.

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I heard the bombs going down next to my house in northern Syria, when I decided to leave this hell on earth. A few days later I left syria with my wife and daughter on a small and unsafe boat to cross the mediterranean sea.
It wasnt a verz hard decision to do so because there was nothing that held me there. I have no other familz members there and the war is terrible. Thats not the place I wanted to see my daughter growing up.
After weeks of travelling, hunger and insomnia we finally arrived in our destination country Germany.
We had many problems from there, but the biggest was the language. I didnt speak and the language is so difficult to learn. After some months of intensive german courses supplied by an organization I finally could communicate a little bit to care about some basic staff like a job or a shelter. The accomodation we lived before were horrific. Just young men and so much dirtiness and aggressive behaviour that it wasnt a big difference from the situation in my home country
But after I found a job as a shop assistant I could afford a very small habitation with the help of some donation money. Besides my job I am doing some educational courses in a school to improve my overall skill level to achieve a higher job anytime. My daughter now goes to a primary school in the town and I hope she can go to university one time.
My wife is even doing some work as a cleaner in a hospital.

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I wish I never leave my country, it was so heartbroken when I had to but it was the only choose I had. I had to leave my house, all my belongings and everything that I ever knew.
It was dangerous to leave and the road was very long but didn't care, I wanted to have a better life, without waking every morning wondering if my family and I were going to survive the terrorist attracts.
When we finally did it, we arrive to an other country, with a different culture and a different language I didn't speak, so communicating was very difficult, at first I thought we would have to leave to somewhere else where the language were easy to learn, but the local people, or al least most of them were very kind to us, they knew we were in a bad situation and they wanted to help us, they did an extraordinary effort to help me communicate and at the end I was able to speak the language, and then I was also able to look for a job so my family and I don't depend on charity any more. Now I work in a restaurant as a waitress and I earn enough money to have a better life.

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I am arriving to a refugee camp called Riestra. My family is with me, i have four kids and they seem to be okey, that is the only thing that it really matters right now. My little boy asks me if this camp is our vacation destination.I nod. I cant tell him the true. A man tells us to put our stuff in a big tent full of people, we are packed like sardines, there is no space left.
one week later when I wake up a soldier get me to a room with more refugees inside.We make a line and someone, i think it was from the ONU, ask us about our life and skills.
It is a freezing night in the camp, we dont have to many clothes to keep our selves warm so it was a tough night.
I really hope that the ONU find us a job because we cant live in such a bad condition like this any more.

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My name is Santiago, I am from Syria, and i about to telling us the experience of be a refugee.
I was born in Syria, and i have two sons. I never expected to leave my country, but I didn't have any choice. We spent days running to be safe, and the situation never gets better.
So, we decided to move on to another country, a safe place for me and my two kids. We arrived to Australia on 2004, and since that day, i think we are the happiest family on the entire planet.
I think the hardest thing for us was the adaptation to the new system and understanding the expectations from it. Sometimes, you have to deal with a lot of prejudice, racism, and that's a thing that i expect you never have to suffer.
Also, It wasn't easy afford the cost of living of this country.
I really admire the generosity and the kindness of Australian people and the welcoming nature that they embrace. Australia is my home. Australia has given to my kids everything that they need to grow as education, healthy, and happiness. Australia give us a second life for me and my kids, a better one.
I would like to try to support Australian people. I've never done anything for Australia, and yet I have received so much support from Australia. I need to be more than I am now. I would like to be a man who can offer my support to all Australians. I would like to help new arrivals also, and be a very honest man.

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Imagine you're a refugee. Write a story about your experience in moving to your new home country. The story will be published in a news magazine.

Include details of your experience including:

·       what it was like to leave your home country

·       what it was like to arrive in your new country

·       the challenges you faced/are facing in your new country

·       how you’re feeling now

·       your opinion on the 'refugee crisis': should governments around the world do more to help refugees? What should they do?

Use the historical present at least once.

Further instructions:

·     Use your computer

·     Do research but use your imagination to write your own story (use first person ‘I’)

·     Add photos

·     Include quotes and opinions about the refugee crisis

·       Write or upload your article into  padlet

Useful links:

Google map perspective on a refugee’s journey form Syria

https://www.worldvision.org/refugees-news-stories/syrian-refugee-google-map-perspective

Refugees share their stories

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-22/refugee-week-profiles/4036618

UNHCR refugee stories

http://stories.unhcr.org/