World Refugee Day - 2016

​June 20 marks the United Nations' World Refugee Day. There are many events organized to mark this day of awareness and action.
Children and young people across the world are touched by the situation, either directly or remotely through the constant barrage of news items relaying shocking facts, figures and images.
Last month, Oxford University Press ran a survey of over 120,000 short stories written by UK children for a writing competition run by BBC Radio 2. The survey found that "usage of the word ‘refugee’ was up by 368%, and (...) that the attitudes expressed towards refugees were overwhelmingly empathetic." This brought the OUP to declare 'refugee' 'children's word of the year 2016' (read the full report here).
Many parents and carers will be wondering what they can do to approach the subject with their young ones. Reading a book is a good place to start and there are a few places to look for recommendations, such as the reading list published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (here) or Children's Books Ireland (here for instance).