Castlemilk High School: a Rights Respecting School

The Rights Respecting Schools Award recognises a school’s achievement in putting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into practice within the school and beyond.  Each month this year, the school library has featured a book, recommended by Unicef. These books highlight different articles from the UNCRC, helping to raise our pupils’ awareness of their rights. The final book of the year is the graphic novel When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed. This incredible true story links to several of articles including:  

28: Right to an education
27: Adequate standard of living
19: Protection from violence, abuse and neglect 

Eleven-year-old Omar lives with his little brother Hassan in Dadaab, a refugee camp in Kenya. They’ve been there for seven years now, waiting for the civil war in Somalia to end so that they can go home to the family farm and try to find their parents.

Life in the camp is hard: Omar has to look after Hassan, queue for water, queue for food. Dadaab feels like a giant waiting room, but Omar looks for hope around every corner. He plays football with his friends, entertains Hassan, and when he starts going to school, begins to reframe his future: if he can get an education, perhaps he can become a UN social worker and help other children like him.

An intimate picture of a very real boy and what life in a refugee camp is really like, When Stars Are Scattered is available now to borrow from the school library.