TEACHER AND CHILDREN’S AUTHOR SPEAKS ABOUT REFUGEE CHILDREN

by the Young Voices Staff

On July 12th, 2017  in the Pettit Atrium in Stonehill College’s Science Center, teacher and author Katherine Mary Kraver taught PCC students about the plight of displaced children around the world.

Kraver is a third grade teacher at the Coburn Elementary School in West Springfield, MA. As she explained in her talk, the Coburn is the most diverse school in the district; of the 500 students at the school, 300 are English Language Learners (ELL). Driven to better understand the experiences of the students in her classroom, Kraver decided to begin traveling to the countries her students came from. To date, she has been to dozens of countries on five continents.

Her trip to Jordan inspired her first book, It Was Just A House, the story of a young boy forced from his home and then relocated to a refugee camp. The title comes from the words his father said to him as they watched their house being destroyed. Through the writing of this book, Kraver wished to highlight the strain of being a refugee, while also reminding readers that there is a difference between a house and a home.

Kraver also introduced a former refugee from Iraq to share her experience. Her father worked as a translator for the US Army during the second Iraq War, and to protect his family, he sought refugee status in the United States. She spoke about how she related to It Was Just A House and her experience as a refugee.

The Boy With the Red Shoes, Kraver’s second book, was written after her visit to Haiti following the major earthquake there in 2010. The story was sparked by an incident in which her little brother traded his red shoes to a barefoot Haitian boy who was selling woven turtles made from newspapers. The shoes allowed the boy to stand for longer periods of time and be able to sell more of his handmade goods. Kraver said that this story showed her how things we consider to be little and insignificant can make a big difference in the lives of the less fortunate.

Kraver asked students to bring in canned goods in advance of her talk. PCC was able to present her with over 300 cans that she will donate to a food pantry in lieu of payment.

-with additional reporting by Abby Kneipfer