Getting to know you
Year 7 students from Sydney’s Jewish Emanuel School and Muslim Iqra Grammar College recently spent a day together participating in the Together For Humanity’s ‘Reaching Out’ program.
Getting together
Students talked about discovering each other as people, instead of the generalisations based on assumptions about their religion. Heated discussions arose about breaking rules when these lead to unkindness.
They told each other what they want people to understand about them and what they never want to hear about their community… big noses, stingy Jews and of course terrorist.
I was quite confronted to hear a year 7 boy from Iqra state “I hate when people call us terrorists just because we are Muslim…” and a girl from Emanuel tell us how people have refrained from being her friend because she is Jewish.
What came from the workshop was understanding and appreciation for each other’s culture and religion.
The children were brave and bold and embraced one another. One student said to Lina Daher (TFH Presenter) that she wished they did this more often.
To see students embrace in hugs at the end of the day was so amazingly beautiful and inspiring.
Together For Humanity’s Reaching Out Program:
Our facilitator’s challenge and support students to work with their peers from other schools with backgrounds different to their own. This in-depth program is ideally run as a full day workshop, four times a year.
Together For Humanity:
Together for Humanity is a not‐for‐profit multi faith‐based organisation that is fostering interfaith cooperation and bringing positive experiences of diversity to thousands of Australians. Our aim is to help all Australians understand and accept diversity particularly relating to religious beliefs, cultures, ethnicities and Indigenous peoples. We lead children, teachers and the community to recognise our commonalities and to replace prejudice with mutual respect and cooperation.
