On the 16th of February, Jordan Hatter visited The British School of Beijing (BSB), Shunyi, to give a presentation about the Syrian refugees. Jordan Hatter is 25 years old and has visited 29 countries so far on his speaking tour. He has given about 160 presentations in the past sixteen months and he is from Templeton, California. Jordan talked to the Year 5 and 6 students about the refugees in Syria at the Zaatri refugee camp because he wanted to spread the word about what is happening in Syria and encourage people to help. The next country he will be visiting will be Mongolia.
We were fortunate to have extra time to speak with Jordan and we asked him several questions about his work in Syria.
Question 1: What inspired you to work at the Zaatri refugee camp?
Jordan’s answer: “It was learning about my Syrian teacher’s two cousins who died from being shot in Syria that made me think about how I could help the other people that are in Syria. Unfortunately she told me not to go to Syria as it would be too dangerous, but my ambition was too strong to hold back so I decided to go to Syria.”
Question 2: Please tell us about the life of a child in the refugee camp.
Jordan told us that the situation is slowly improving. In 2012 the camp had just opened and lots of children were out of school, but now there are 11 UNICEF schools in the camp to provide education to the children. 17000 out of 30000 children are in school. He explained that the new minister of education in Syria told him that the Syrian refugees were separated into four groups: government schools, public schools, double-shift schools (which means they go to school part-time) or not in school at all.
Question 3: What future plans do you have for your organisation “help4refugees”?
Jordan’s answer: “To be honest I’m not exactly sure. For me it’s about following my heart and I really mean it and so figuring out how I could counter some of the misinformation that was spread about refugees in the media, for example about how bad refugees are and how people think they are dangerous. The reason I talk to schools is that I don’t like how the world is right now and you guys are going to be the future of this world. When I drove into your school I saw something saying creating the leaders of tomorrow and that stuck with me because that’s what I believe. Just because you can’t fix everything doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do what you can.”
After Jordan’s presentation and the opportunity to interview him, we have learnt a lot about refugees and it made us feel that even if it’s only one person we can still make a difference. If you would like to learn more about Jordan Hatter and how you can help the refugees, please visit the link www.help4refugees.org .
Written by: Gaby and George, Primary Head Students