Home Away from Home

in the classroom There are nearly 70 million with the impact that our ever- refugees and displaced people growing consumption has on the HOME AWAY in the world today. Continuous environment. His teaching and conflict in areas of the world far his daily life reflect his desire removed from our daily lives in to be a part of a solution to the FROM HOME Idaho has created this crisis, and, ever-looming environmental experts say, the massive flow of crisis—climate change. Motivated How an English Class and an humanity will only get worse as by current events, these two Environmental Science Class Are the world’s population pushes to teachers put their heads together Addressing the Refugee Crisis 10 billion mouths to feed by 2050. to create a project-based class Enter Scott Runkel and Elliot that would allow students to words by JOHNNY HAGENBUCH '20 Jacobs, two teachers at Sun engage with people impacted by Valley Community School who the refugee crisis and work with are passionate about engaging them to solve one of the major their students in the issues concerns facing the resettled facing their immediate and global population—housing. communities. Elliot, who returned in the spring of 2016 from a t is hard for those of us who term in Morocco with his family, have grown up in a relatively was profoundly moved by what stable geo-political environment he witnessed abroad following Ito imagine the great hardship the Arab Spring. As a parent of and desperation associated with young children, he “imagined the abandoning one’s home in the face impossible choices that parents of death. This forceful departure must face” when their homelands is what the United Nations High dissolved into the chaos of civil Commission for Refugees, an war. The refugee crisis was not organization established following a distant idea to him. And Scott WWII to protect and manage the has a longstanding concern millions of homeless, identifies as 54 communityschool.org the necessary characteristic of also refugees then have to face a refugee or an asylum-seeker. the reality of “resettling.” The Today, the UNHCR cooperates government funnels refugees with national and international to various states, and local governments to direct and organizations like the Twin Falls administrate the determination and Refugee Center are fully responsible resettlement of refugees. But the for the resettlement process. process wouldn’t be considered This period of assimilation entails in any way smooth or streamlined. language classes, moving into a new In order to arrive in a country like home, getting jobs, and familiarizing the United States, the ratification themselves with American culture. and approval process is lengthy However, it is imperative that the and laborious. People deprived new Americans hit the ground of their homes languish for years running: there is a six-month period in overcrowded camps while during which refugees are aided they are interviewed, screened, financially by the government, but independent. fingerprinted, and photographed, after this short gestation period, they This past school year, our class and then checked again. There are on their own. had the privilege to listen to and is a great amount of uncertainty Refugee resettlement is a converse with some refugees associated with the whole divisive topic on the political resettled through the Twin Falls procedure, but the struggle does landscape these days. Among other program. One of them was Samuel not end once approval is granted. concerns, there is the notion that Ngbokpwo, a refugee from the OPPOSITE: A rendering of the tiny home Democratic Republic of Congo. Sun Valley Community School students When an individual or family refugees might take advantage of are working to build for southern is accepted by our government, the welfare system in our country. His story is not atypical in the Idaho-based refugees. ABOVE (top to the voyage to the United States But resettlement centers like the tumultuous realm on the other side bottom): A top-down view of the tiny presents a trial in itself. Not only is one in Twin Falls are finding that of the world, but it was no less home; (l to r) teachers Elliot Jacobs and shocking. When the conflict came Scott Runkel with students Johnny there the significant cost factor— the refugees they work with are Hagenbuch, Naia Drougas, Isabella once in the U.S., refugees have to hard-working and proud individuals to his home in the Congo, he was Bourret ‘18 joined by representatives pay for the cost of their airfare—but who want to contribute and be at work. His family fled without him. from the Twin Falls Refugee Center. RENDERINGS COURTESY OF JAMES BOURRET OF JAMES RENDERINGS COURTESY communityschool.org 55 in the classroom On the way to Uganda, he was four With these two teachers at the 6'-1" 8'-3 3/8" days behind his family, who had left helm, we spent the spring term of ESCAPE SHIP'S almost all of their possessions and 2018 envisioning and constructing WINDOW LADDER " 2 / their home. He finally caught up to a plan for how we could potentially 1 1 1 - combine these two pertinent and E them, and they spent many years in ' KIDS LOFT OPEN TO BELOW G MAIN LOFT 5 A R O proximal issues: global climate T a refugee camp in Uganda where S Samuel ministered to the people change and the refugee crisis. Our SPLIT STAIR ESCAPE of the camp as a pastor. In January answer? A tiny home that could WINDOW UPPER 2016, he resettled in Twin Falls with house two refugees for their six- his wife Furaha and his children month initial resettlement period. Daniel, Sara, Grace, Keren, and We divided ourselves into small 24'-0" Jedidiah. He has been working as groups devoted to diferent aspects a dryer operator at Jerome Cheese of the project: finance, design, SHIP'S STORAGE RANGE LADDER logistics, and research. After some ABOVE since March 2016, and Furaha is W/D K N " I 2 working at Everton Mattress. They research, we discussed how we S / 1 KITCHEN LIVING BATH WOOD R 1 purchased their own home in spring wanted the house to be designed F STOVE - E ' R STORAGE 2017, and Samuel has begun to and what factors should dictate 8 UNDER BENCH & SPLIT HOOKS SHOWER minister his Congolese-American design. Once we had developed STAIR refugees at a local church. some understanding of the issues SL. GL. DOOR For Elliot and Scott, the and a sense of direction for the MAIN near proximity of the Twin Falls home project, some members WOOD ENTRY DECK Resettlement Center was an of the class visited the Refugee opportunity to get students Center in Twin Falls and spent the involved in a meaningful way. They day touring the facilities, interacting developed a two-term course that with refugees, and helping to revolved around building a “tiny accomplish some of the many daily home” for a refugee family. Elliot tasks they face. This trip helped had witnessed Syrian families in to further solidify the goal we had Tangier trying to make their way to provide incoming refugees to Western Europe and safety. He with an ethically conscious and understood the level of anxiety environmentally sustainable mobile nuts & bolts these refugees felt about finding a tiny house. Speaking directly with BUILDING A TINY HOME home in a new land. Scott’s reasons the refugees—professionals and for creating the class? “First, I like hard workers pushed from their doing project-based learning as I homes by the great inhumanity of Even with Scott’s "MacGyver" skills (think converted electric car find it to be challenging, engaging, humanity—helped us understand completed in 2017), it will be a struggle for our class (none of whom and real,” he says. “It meshes well the need for solutions like the are skilled craftsmen or women, yet) to construct a legal and safe with the mission of Sun Valley tiny house project. Meeting real home, especially one that is visually appealing and fulfills all the Community School and our guiding people associated with the crisis sustainability criteria we’ve defined. That said, it will take a little principles. Second, I have been made it real, removing it from help from our friends and community members. We are working thinking a lot about tiny houses the realm of staggering numbers with some professional builders who are consulting on the project. since Katherine Estep '19 did her 8th and an unfathomable problem to Architect and Cutthroat parent, James Bourret; contractor and Grade Project on them. Increasing people trying to live prosperous, Cutthroat alum ‘83 and parent Mat Hall; Mark and Luke Savage; house sizes over the last 75 years successful lives. Elliot says, “The and the staf of the Refugee Center have been integral in the mirrors the rising consumption Twin Falls Refugee Center is doing planning/designing process. of goods by Americans and all an amazing job in pretty tough the environmental problems from circumstances. We thought about + The tiny home we are building will cost: $25,000 climate change to deforestation and what we could do to make the + Money we have raised (to date): $7,000+ biodiversity loss that are associated experience of a refugee family + Total square footage of the home: Less than 200 sq. ft. with that. Tiny houses are one step more welcoming. In a bigger + the two sleeping lofts on either end of the room towards a wiser use of resources way, though, I think that we're 8’ by 22’ and mitigation of these problems. all beneficiaries of the project— Total square footage of the average American home: According Third, humanitarian crises across learning about refugees, getting to the Census Bureau, over the last 42 years, the average new the world have been more on my the opportunity to do good work, U.S.

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