Educational Resources about Refugees

Forced From Home

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) developed this teacher resource to support school visits to the Forced From Home exhibition that started its North America tour in 2016. The toolkit brings to light the daily challenges faced by the millions of people displaced around the world, and can be used in the classroom without visiting the exhibition. 

Download the educational booklet

Read stories from refugees around the world

Watch these videos to get a 360° view of life on the move.

Forced to Leave

This educational toolkit was designed to provide teachers and students with an opportunity to further expand upon their experience of participating in the Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City exhibit that Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) organized in several cities around Canada between 2008 and 2011. The material also offers an introduction to refugee and displacement issues for those students who have not attended the exhibit. The five lesson plans can be adapted by teachers to suit their classroom needs.

Lesson 1: Forced to Leave

Students try to imagine what would be like to have to flee from their homes within a matter of minutes and research the reasons for displacement. (Download)

Lesson 2: Shelter

Building upon Lesson One, students map out shelter space and discuss the differences between a “shelter” and an “established home.” (Download)

Lesson 3: Food & Malnutrition

Students learn about food rations and the crisis of malnutrition. (Download)

Lesson 4: Water & Sanitation

Students learn the challenges refugees face in accessing one of their most critical basic needs, water, and the implications of appropriate sanitation. (Download)

Lesson 5: Building Awareness

Students are provided with suggestions for putting their knowledge into action by raising awareness of refugee and displaced issues locally. (Download)

Eyes Shut

MSF Pulse: The truth about refugees and migrants

MSF stands with refugees

Lost at sea

In this cartoon, a Doctors Without Borders  nurse recounts saving refugees in the Mediterranean

Escaping Wars and Waves

Olivier Kugler’s compelling series of evocative drawings documents the experiences of Syrian refugees he met in Iraqi Kurdistan, Greece, France, Germany, Switzerland and England, mostly on assignment for Doctors Without Borders

Comic about Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya

• View online
• Download

The Refugee Journey: Migrant Lives at Risk

• Read more about the global displacement crisis and MSF's response

Exodus 

Exodus is a multimedia site about large population movements in the 21st century and their protagonists: refugees, displaced people and migrants.

• Visit the multimedia site

International Humanitarian Law

The Canadian Red Cross has developed a tool kit to help educators teach students about the importance of IHL, the rules that ensure respect for life and human dignity in war.

• International Humanitarian Law - Tools for teachers