FINDING HOME: A YEAR

IN THE LIFE OF SYRIAN

REFUGEE FAMILIES
OBJECTIVES:

You will be able to:

• refer to details and examples from the TIME Magazine project "Finding Home" in order to
compare and contrast how they imagine a home with the ways that three Syrian women imagine a
home
• integrate information from two multimedia pieces from TIME in order to write and speak about
options for responding to the refugee crisis in Europe
• integrate multimedia information to develop a full understanding of how war has impacted the
lives of three Syrian families and identify how each media type contributes to their understanding
 THIS LESSON EXPLORES A PROJECT
CALLED "FINDING HOME."
• On your own, or with a partner, use the table below to describe what you imagine when you think
of a home. Prepare to share and compare your responses with the class:
 REFLECT ON THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS AND
THEN SHARE YOUR RESPONSES WITH THE CLASS:
• What does a place need to be a home?
• Why might someone need to leave their home?
• Have you ever had to leave your home? Why? How did that feel?
 "FINDING HOME" IS A TRUE STORY ABOUT FOUR FAMILIES WHO
HAVE TO LEAVE THEIR HOMES BECAUSE THEY HAVE BECOME
REFUGEES.

1. Discuss: What is a refugee? What can cause a person to become a refugee?

2. Discuss: How might your life change if a war started in your country? If fighting
was happening in your backyard, how could that impact your daily life? At what point
would you decide to leave?
3. Examine the graphic from TIME below. How many people are leaving Syria to get away from the
war? Where are they going to seek asylum? Take two minutes to discuss with a partner: Should
countries be required to grant asylum to refugees? If yes, why and under what circumstances?
If no, why not?
The graphics above were created in 2015. As of December 2017, the number of Syrian
refugees was closer to 5.4 million, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees.
Today, we are going to learn more about the lives of three of those refugees, and their
families, by reading and viewing excerpts from the story "Finding Home." The story was
published in TIME Magazine by journalists Aryn Baker, Lynsey Addario, and Francesca
Trianni. They spent a year researching the story and used writing, video and photographs to
tell the stories of the people they met.
4. As you explore the true stories in "Finding Home," listen for the following:
How do the people in the story describe the places they live?
What do they say they want in a home and how does that compare with what you said
makes a home?
 "FINDING HOME" INTRODUCES US TO FOUR WOMEN WHO ARE
PREGNANT WHEN THEY ARE FORCED TO LEAVE SYRIA. THEY
ARE IN GREECE WHEN THE STORY BEGINS.
1. Read the following paragraph from the first article in "Finding Home," for an introduction:
More than 1,000 Syrian refugees have given birth in Greece this year, and since September,
TIME has followed four of them….Through video, social media, photography and the written
word, TIME will spend the next year documenting the babies' first year of life. Wrapped in
donated blankets and secondhand onesies, they will likely spend at least the first months of
their new lives in hastily built refugee camps that offer little protection from winter's freezing
temperatures and summer's swarms of mosquitoes. They are between worlds. In a world
teeming with unknowns, about the only thing certain in their lives is that they probably won't
see their parents' home country until they are adults, if ever.
2. Before reading more excerpts from this article, consider the following:
Why do you think the story was titled "Children of No Nation"? What do you think the
story will be about?
What might a pregnant woman, or a mother with a new baby, want in a new home?
 Divide into three groups, and you will be assigned the story of Taimaa, Illham, or Nour. In your group, or on your
own, read your assigned excerpt of "Children of No Nation" to meet one of the three women who the journalists
follow in "Finding Home." As you read, use the table below to track details about what this woman thinks of when
she thinks of "home."
AFTER READING, DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING:

• What details stood out to you from the excerpts?

• What do you learn about the places Nour, Taimaa, and Illham live?
• How does the way they imagine "home" compare to the way you imagined "home" at the
start of the lesson?
 INTRODUCING RESOURCE 2: "HELN'S
FIRST YEAR"
http://time.com/finding-home/?xid=homepage
Now we are going to look at what happened to Taimaa in the year following the excerpt you
just read. This time, the journalists from TIME Magazine tell the story in a different way.
While you explore this multimedia story, consider the following:
• Where do Taimaa and her family go as they search for a home? What does it look like in
those places? How do they feel in those places?
• What questions did the journalists choose to ask? What images and video do they share?
• Why do you think the journalists choose to tell Taimaa's story this way?
1. AS A CLASS, EXPLORE THE STORY. PAIRS OF STUDENTS CAN
TAKE TURNS READING TAIMAA AND FRANCESCA'S TEXT
MESSAGE EXCHANGES OUT LOUD, OR ON THEIR OWN.
 DISCUSS:

• What new information have you learned about Taimaa and what her life is like?
Reference details from the multimedia story.
• What do learn about her personality? What do you learn about what she wants for a new
home?
• In what way(s) is Taimaa telling her own story in "Children of No Nation" and in "Heln's
First Year"?
 CONCLUSION

• What did you learn from "Finding Home" about the experience of Syrian refugees that
you didn't know before?
• How do Nour, Illham, and Taimaa's homes compare to yours? How do their hopes for the
future compare to your hopes for the future?
• After reading the article, what do you hope for Nour, Illham, and Taimaa?