REI Spark Project for youth

The Spark project is an educational project created by Issin Kobayashi and Nico Mariano with the goal of spreading awareness of refugees to the youth in Japan. The name was created with the intention of creating a spark in the youth of Japan. 

On 1 June 1st, REI interns Issin and Nico had their first SPARK lecture with K international school. The session was around an hour long with 6 participating students over a Zoom call. The lesson started off with a quick discussion about what you could do in 40 minutes – the same length as the lecture – followed by a think-pair-share activity which involved identifying from 3 photos who was a refugee, foreign citizen, and internally displaced person. The lecture ended with a showcase of two different types of refugees from Myanmar, one living in Japan and the other in Thailand. 

The overall reception of the lecture was very good with all participants rating this lecture a 4 or 5 out of 5 in the questionnaires we handed out at the end. Furthermore, most participants wanted to partake in future REI activities, which we were very pleased to hear.

We hope to keep expanding our outreach and presenting at more schools!