Blog

-Ron Lapitan, Former Community Outreach Coordinator

Our Yorktown High School Health as Right Club started their service project this week, producing a video to raise awareness about the experience of immigrants. During their Monday class, they split into teams to do pre-production roles such as research, writing, and promotion.

On Wednesday, they continued our curriculum on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This week’s theme was rights related to immigrants. As an ESL class, they had much to say on the topic.

“What do you think most Americans misunderstand about the experience of immigrants?” I asked my discussion group.

“They think it’s easy,” said Santos quickly. “What they don’t know is that people come because they lack the basic necessities.”

“They don’t know the feeling,” added Raul. When I asked what he meant, her elaborated, “They have always had freedom. They don’t know what it’s like to not have freedom.”

A lot of the youth also mentioned the numerous shots they had to get, sometimes only to find that they weren’t accepted because they took them in the wrong month and had to take them again. “I had 18 shots in my own country, and 8 more shots here,” Gobinder from Punjab commented with a laugh.

After learning human rights such as the right of every person to leave and return to their country (Article 13) and the right of every person to seek asylum in another country (Article 14), they drew pictures about their experience of immigrating and were asked if any of their human rights were violated.

“This might have been their best discussion yet,” reflected Ms. Smiles, the teacher who facilitated the second discussion group. Chinua from Mongolia in her group drew a picture about feeling like navigating a new culture was like being in a dream, and any minute she should wake up to a world where she wasn’t confused. Ayla from Turkey drew a picture of a face with a smile, the one she shows to the world, but behind it is a face of sadness, what she truly feels inside.

“People don’t appreciate what these kids go through. I don’t sometimes,” Ms. Smiles reflected. “I also underestimate their capacity for nuance. But this program is bringing out a really thoughtful and empowered side for some of them. And for those two or three that it affects, this is all worth it.”

“Do you know what a foreign accent is? It’s a sign of bravery.”

-Amy Chua

(Image: Gobinder’s drawing.)