Classroom Activities and Resources: Olympics and Sports Special Edition
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Classroom activities and resources: Olympics and sports special edition 1 Version 3 – June 2012 Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................. 3 Classroom Activities ................................................................................................... 4 Olympic Refugees ....................................................................................................... 4 Fabrice Muamba, the refugee who has made football his home ......................... 8 The Guardian, Saturday 17 March 2012 ................................................................... 8 2 Version 3 – June 2012 Introduction In summer 2012, London will be under the spotlight when it hosts the Olympic Games. Athletes and spectators from all around the world will arrive in the United Kingdom to be part of the Games. This unique event allows different cultures to come together and mix (for athletes this will mean living together in the Olympic Village). For many athletes, the Olympics are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to represent their country in a global event. Many migrants and refugees have risen to that stage and represented the country that granted them asylum. In 2008, Lopez Lomong (born in what is now South Sudan) was given the honour of representing his country of asylum, the United States. He was also chosen to be the US flag bearer. The basketball star Luol Deng will be representing Team GB at the Olympics. Deng fled his home country, Sudan, as a child and sought asylum with his family in the UK. Another refugee athlete hit the headlines in 2012: Fabrice Muamba, the Bolton Wanderers football player who suffered a heart attack while playing an FA Cup match. Despite having arrived in Britain at the age of 11, unable to speak any English, Muamba went on to achieve 10 GCSEs and A-levels in English, French and Maths. He has achieved further success in football, representing England at all youth levels, including the under-21 squad. Muamba’s story is a perfect example of schools representing the first step towards full integration for children from a refugee background. Our resources for schools enable teachers to build refugee themes into their curriculum. This special edition builds on our two previous resource packs, available to download from our website (http://www.employabilityforum.co.uk/refugees-into-schools/). We recommend consulting the first two packs for more background information on refugee and asylum issues, including statistics and other useful facts. A compiled version of all packs will be available shortly. 3 Version 3 – June 2012 Classroom Activities These activities are designed to increase awareness and knowledge of who refugees are and why they had to leave their countries. They are aimed at clarifying the differences between refugees and other types of migrants, provoking discussion about the obstacles and integration challenges faced by refugees, and asking pupils to place themselves in the shoes of refugees through role plays and other empathy-building activities. Olympic Refugees Kick off a discussion about refugees by focusing on a very topical issue: the 2012 London Olympics. First, ask pupils to read the following text highlighting Olympic refugees, and then hold a classroom discussion using the questions below. “Refugee Olympic Athletes”1 a) At the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games, the American flag was borne by a young man who had only been a US citizen since 2007: the track and field athlete Lopez Lomong. Born in South Sudan as Lopepe Lomong, he was displaced by the Sudanese civil war and spent 10 years in a refugee camp in Kenya, where he came by the nickname “Lopez”. He arrived in America at the age of 16 and achieved sporting success at high school as well as collegiate track and field competitions. In the run up to the Beijing Olympics, Lomong campaigned hard to be the flag bearer. He was chosen by the Olympic team captains for being so clearly proud of his new American citizenship. b) This year, another refugee athlete is training hard to represent Norway as a marathon runner. Urige Buta is of Ethiopian origin and fled his home in 2003 after his father was arrested for his political views. Buta attained Norwegian citizenship in 2011. His training regime is a far sight more difficult than most other Olympic hopefuls’. Since he works as a caretaker, Buta fits his training schedule around his shifts at work. He also does not have access to the high-end training facilities that many other athletes take for granted. The cold Norwegian climate means that he spends the winter months training in an underground service tunnel intended for sewage pipes. There is another reason why his training was challenging: when he started out, Buta only had refugee status and could not easily travel abroad to attend races. Even 1 Sources: http://asia.eurosport.com/olympic-games/london-2012/2012/janitor-set-for- olympics_sto3206824/story.shtml and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lopez_Lomong. 4 Version 3 – June 2012 after becoming a full-fledged citizen, he has to pick races that allow him to return home in time for his Monday morning work shift. His employers have now given him paid leave to train for the summer Olympics. He is not expected to attain a medal, but may well place in the top 12, the best result Norway could expect for decades. Questions 1. Why do you think it might be important to a refugee to compete in the Olympics for their country of asylum? How do you think a refugee athlete might feel carrying a flag or singing their “new” national anthem? 2. Do you think there should be any restrictions on refugees representing their new countries in the Olympics? Why? 3. What are the possible obstacles that refugee athletes may face when preparing for such a large sporting event? Do you think they are different than those faced by the majority of Olympic athletes? Why or why not? Famous Refugee Athletes Now that you have raised the question of refugee athletes, broaden the discussion by asking pupils if they can think of any other famous sportspeople from a refugee background. Chances are many will know this one… 5 Version 3 – June 2012 Fabrice Muamba Fabrice Muamba is a footballer who plays for Bolton Wanderers. On 17th March 2012, he suffered a heart attack that almost killed him while playing in an FA Cup quarter-final match against Tottenham Hotspur. Ask pupils to read these two articles from the Guardian and the Telegraph (also available at the back of this pack). While they are doing this, write the following questions on the board, and see if pupils can extract the correct information. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/mar/17/fabrice-muamba-bolton-wanderers http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/news/9150696/Fabrice-Muamba-collapses- at-Tottenham-v-Bolton-game.html 1. Where was he born? In Kinshasa, formerly Zaire and now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 2. When and why did he come to the UK? His father fled the country in 1994 because of his political views and arrived in the United Kingdom seeking asylum. In 1999, he was granted indefinite leave to remain, at which time he was joined by the rest of the family. 3. Was he a good student? Despite having arrived in Britain at the age of 11, unable to speak any English, Muamba went on to achieve 10 GCSEs and A-levels in English, French and Mathematics. 4. Is he eligible to play for England? Yes. In fact, he represented England at all youth levels, including the under-21 squad. As a naturalised British citizen, Muamba is eligible to play for any of the Home Nations in which he has received three years of full time education before the age of 18, or lived in for five years. Muamba was also called up to the DR Congo squad in May 2007, but declined so as to remain eligible for England. 6 Version 3 – June 2012 Now ask pupils if they know of any other athletes from refugee backgrounds that have succeeded in reaching a high level in their chosen sport? Introduce the following examples: Luol Deng, currently playing basketball for the Chicago Bulls in the NBA and for team GB at the Olympics. He was born in what is now South Sudan in 1985. He then moved with his family to the UK, after being granted asylum, and became a UK citizen in 2006. He grew up in Brixton, where he started playing basketball, and represented Croydon Borough at the London Youth Games, before moving to the US aged 14. Martina Navratilova, born in Czechoslovakia, tennis legend and all-time record winner of 177 tournaments, applied for political asylum in the United States in 1975. She eventually regained Czech citizenship in 2008. Shefki Kuqi, born in Yugoslavia, is a Kosovo-born refugee to Finland who spent most his career playing professional football in England. He had spells at Newcastle United, Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich Town, Blackburn Rovers, Crystal Palace, Fulham and Swansea City and is currently playing for League One side Oldham Athletic. He has made over 500 career league appearances, scoring almost 150 goals. 7 Version 3 – June 2012 Fabrice Muamba, the refugee who has made football his home The Guardian, Saturday 17 March 2012 A meeting recalled with the modest, promising young player who was filled with hope after fleeing a civil war There is something deeply chilling when a young, apparently fit, professional footballer can suddenly be face down on the turf and it is very apparent, just from the speed at which people are moving around him, the urgency of their body language and the way the other players are reacting, crying, praying, barely able to watch, that this is absolutely terrible. Fabrice Muamba was having a decent game for Bolton Wanderers in their FA Cup tie at White Hart Lane.