Hoping for a Home After Myanmar

Hoping for a Home After Myanmar is part of the “Leaving My Homeland: After the Journey” series from Crabtree Publishing. This series continues the fictional stories begun in the Crabtree’s “Leaving My Homeland” series. The characters in these stories are young people who have been forced by circumstance to become refugees.

Hoping for a Home After Myanmar tells the story of Syed, a fictional child from Myanmar. Syed’s story has no happy ending. Although he is better off in Malaysia than he would be in Myanmar, there are few organizations that help Rohingya refugees in Malaysia and few schools that accept Rohingya students. Child refugees like Syed, with no parents, are especially vulnerable.

In Malaysia, the government agreed to accept refugees. But there are no camps there. To support themselves, refugees work illegally in jobs that are often unsafe and not well paid.

Rohingya refugees in Malaysia have no legal rights. They are often exploited. They may be put in detention. Detention is like jail. Refugees can be held in detention for weeks or years. Many Rohingya have died from disease while in detention.

Statistics, maps, background information about the homeland country, Myanmar, set Syed’s story in context. Unfortunately, the map accompanying the chapter, “Syed’s Story: Leaving My Homeland”, has India mislabeled as Bangladesh.

Also included are text boxes titled “Story in Numbers”. Combined with the fictional personal narratives, these statistics give a clear picture of the experiences of refugees. Some examples of the numbers are:

In 2015, an estimated 25,000 Rohingya left Myanmar in boats. In 2017, 671,000 Rohingya left Myanmar, and traveled to Bangladesh.

Scattered through the book are different articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. These articles are a clear reminder that all refugees, including children, have rights. A resource listed at the end of the book leads the reader to a United Nations website that explains these rights in child-friendly language.

Like other books in the series, Hoping for a Home After Myanmar includes a table of contents, a simple glossary, an index, and a page of resources for additional information. Each book ends with a list of discussion prompts to help the reader recall and consolidate the information in the book.

Part of the story is told in the first person through Syed’s texts, messages and phone calls to friends and relatives back in Myanmar. It is clear how his life has changed. It is also clear how much the lives of his family and relatives back in Myanmar continue to be impacted by the ongoing conflict and persecution.

The books in this series support global citizenship. Each book ends with a section titled, “Do Not Forget Our Stories!” Although Syed has not been welcomed in Malaysia, he and his brother continue to hope that one day they will find a country that will accept them, and that they will find a new permanent home with a future in a country like Canada or the United States or Australia.

There are things we can do to help refugees. One important thing is to not forget their stories. Refugees are resilient. This means they can recover from difficult times. Refugees build strong communities. They contribute to their new countries. But many need help to build new lives. All refugees want a home where they can live, work, or go to school in peace.

As in the books in the earlier “Leaving My Homeland” series, the details of the simply told narratives are easy to read but almost impossible to comprehend by people who have never experienced them.

Whether your school or community has a high number of refugee children or not, the books in the “Leaving My Homeland: After the Journey” series belong in every library.