Global Citizenship - Empathy Action

Schools Choose Empathy

(Photos by Hannah Robertson Photography)

Following the recent spell of Desperate Journeys at The Royal Victoria Place, we reflect on the rise of schools choosing empathy for their students. We have the privilege of facilitating groups to take ’empathy steps’ and here’s a little of what we see.

When schools speak to us we’ve heard one phrase more than others: that they hope to ‘burst the bubble’ of their students. Teachers often inform us that they wish to not only expand and challenge their students’ understanding but also to inspire the use of ‘their own privilege’ and enhance their desire to help others.

A date, time and place are agreed and then they arrive.

A class of young people is ready to learn about empathy. Some are nervous, thoughtful and quiet. Others are nonchalant, and focus elsewhere as they wait. Yet others are noisy with anticipation. Their teacher is with them, answering questions, and asking their own too.

What they are all about to do is outside of their classroom. In this case, outside of their school. And possibly outside of the comforts of their own outlooks. It is an exercise in putting on the proverbial shoes of another.

They go through an immersive experience. In this case it’s Desperate Journeys. It explores the journey a Syrian family has to make when forcibly removed from its home, and is based on real facts and testimonies. It is one of an expanding range of empathy based activities.

Participants share about what they felt and matters that had impacted them. As organisers, we have one purpose: to listen. This is their empathy, we want to hear.

The debrief

It’s been called an “incredible teaching tool”, something that is not easy to create in the confines of classrooms. These are some of the words students have used to articulate how they felt during and after the event:

“It showed me that life doesn’t have a happy ending for so many people. This made me feel very emotional and sad because it makes me realise how lucky I am.”

“There was no control over the choices and we had to make them quickly, knowing each decision would be bad.”

“Breathtaking and scary.”

“It makes you feel for refugees and puts you in their shoes – it seems real, feels scary but mind-blowing.”

(Pupils, Frant Primary School & Hilden Grange)

And from the teachers:

“Today you have reached the hearts and minds of those who have the power to change the future… This was, without doubt, the most powerful school trip I have ever taken a class on.”

“The children have not stopped talking about it.”

(Teachers, St Johns Primary School)

What encourages us, as organisers of empathy, is the growing appetite from teachers to want to bring empathy right into the heart of their schools. Choosing to use experiences and simulations like Desperate Journeys and The Poverty Trap as curriculum for their students.

Empathy Action is looking to increase its range of empathy activities (including a future Climate Action simulation) and work further with schools, businesses and community groups.

If you’d like to know more about bringing a simulations to your group or volunteer with us, please do get in touch. We would love to hear from you.

My Desperate Journey by Jenny Maslin

Part time EA administrator, full time singer, musician and teacher, Jenny Maslin

My name’s Jenny and I volunteer with Empathy Action as an administrator. Having sat through many staff meetings and heard all about the planning and preparations that have gone into creating our new simulation, I was excited (and a little nervous) to see what it was all about. I experienced Desperate Journeys as a participant during their launch week and co-founders Ben and Matt asked me to write about my experience…

I joined a group of 26 strangers from all different walks of life, none of us quite sure what to expect. We were welcomed by the simulation’s director, given a passport, some money and asked to remove our shoes before entering one of the seven marquee tents that housed the whole experience. From there the journey began as we were thrown into a situation where, as a group, we had to make multiple decisions for our group’s safety, under pressure and with limited information available. I won’t give any plot spoilers, but will focus instead on the two questions that were asked at the end:

‘What struck you?’ and ‘How did you feel?’

When not volunteering with Empathy Action, I work as a musician and teacher. Sound and silence are a big part of my life and would therefore naturally be a focus for me as I walked through the dark, maze-like set. I found myself making observations between the cleverly designed soundtrack that followed us and the feelings I was experiencing: joyful party music; incoming explosions; the harsh voices of soldiers as they burst in on us; pants, sobs and cries of fear from the actors; the heavy silence as our group sat in darkness on a dingy to Europe, listening to the stories of desperation from a fellow passenger; the subtle changes in music as we turned corners and faced new, improved or worsened situations. I was struck with a sense of powerlessness, swept up in a tide of sounds and people I’d just met, travelling to an unknown destination.

I felt frustrated by the lack of autonomy of group decisions, and could see parallels with the loss of freedom of choice a refugee would face. I felt loss when we heard that our host’s family home and street had been flattened, and grief too when the same family had to make the horrendous decision to separate when applying to relocate. Earlier that day I had been enjoying the first signs of spring, gardening in my quiet peaceful neighbourhood. I had exchanged texts with my sister who has chosen to spend 2 years in Australia as part of a secondment scheme. I miss her very much but know that she is safe and happy, will be returning this year, and that I can visit her without many of the bureaucratic hurdles we experienced in the simulation. These feelings were brought home further in a concluding and powerful speech from one of our volunteers, and a resettled refugee herself. Reem told us of her family’s struggle to flee her home country and resettle in the UK. They are still waiting for the remainder of her family to be granted asylum. Her story brought me to tears. I left the simulation in deep thought, humbled and very moved.

As we drew to a conclusion, we were told that there are 65.6 million people worldwide (a similar amount to the entire population of the UK) who have been forcibly displaced from their home: That’s around 1 in 100 of the world’s population. Refugees don’t start out as refugees. They are mothers, fathers, friends, colleagues, students, professionals… human beings just like us. We must engage with this world crisis and do what we can to help.

More accounts of Desperate Journeys:

Climate Change: “the dividing line between poverty and wellbeing”

An Empathy Action team went to Bonn, Germany last weekend to join a Christian lobby at the 23rd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP23). Empathy Action is looking to build future empathy programmes in this area.

The COP23 this year serves to build on the COP21 and Paris Agreement to

…limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees above that of the pre-industrial age”

It has a focus on building more ambitious targets and being bolder on action for a common future. Everyone has a part to play: Governments (national, regional and local), Investors, Businesses, Civil Society, Everyone. The call is to go

Further, Faster – Together”

Paul and Heather Williams, already activists (they walked to Paris from London to COP 21 in 2015 and are involved in Creation Care at St Nicholas Church Sevenoaks), Alison & Kevin Dennis engaged in Renew our Food at Orpington Baptist Church and regulars for the Poverty Trap joined Director, Ben Solanky in the Empathy Action team.

The team took part in a convening of global groups from End Poverty 2030, Tearfund, Tear Australia, Micah Global Network, EU CORD, EFICOR India and more involving over 60 people. Their activities including handing a petition to delegates from Fiji, the Chair of this year’s summit, to honour the commitments made to date; an adoption of a tree in the botanical gardens of Bonn that can now survive the winter due to climatic changes; a celebration of the nations coming together and church services that reflected a call for action towards a climate of justice.

Martin Kapenda, Director of Micah Global in Zambia, one of the accredited civil society representatives at the talks, shared the very real impacts of climate change in his country and in Africa. He said:

Climate change in my country in Zambia and in Africa is ‘the dividing line’ between poverty and wellbeing.”

Kuki Rokhum, Director of Development and Learning EFICOR in India, who preached at the official Church service on Sunday morning, cited the late activist Wangari Maathai’s ‘story of the hummingbird’ in a call to action by the team encouraging us not to be overwhelmed or numbed by the scale of the problem before us.

Empathy Action is already involved in producing Global Citizenship programmes for schools and groups and will be looking to develop further its range of empathy activities to include climate action.

If you are interested in these programmes to either book for your group or volunteer please contact us.

Building “Desperate Journeys”

“Desperate Journeys“, Empathy Action’s new live interactive experience will be launching early next year to explore the refugee crisis with schools, businesses and groups.

Empathy Action are now actively looking for cast, backstage crew and event support to help build empathy with the global displaced and develop solutions and support for the refugee crisis.

The team have been trialling the set build at Tonbridge School courtesy of the Community Action Department of the school during their mid term break.

The experience is delivered within a maze-like set which can be assembled in a large hall or even outside during the summer. It will run for around 90 minutes as part of a 2-3 hour package delivered by the Empathy Action team, including briefing and a reflective feedback and discussion session. The experience is designed for up to 30 participants at a time, who will be guided through it by our cast members.

The challenging new piece is firmly based in facts, first hand accounts and case studies of this global issue to bring home to participants the human stories behind the headlines.

The launch is scheduled for 22-27th January at Tonbridge Baptist Church.

Empathy Action is now actively looking for more volunteering help to deliver this experience. The plan, to develop a pool of performers and crew, to rehearse through the autumn ahead of our launch week.

We need adults of any age who are comfortable improvising around a core script, interacting with the participants, and delivering powerful personal stories.”

If you are interested in helping please get in touch. Two local workshops will be running for all those interested.

Thursday 2 November 10 am -1 pm (Christ Church, Tunbridge Wells)
Friday 10 November 7 pm -10 pm (Christ Church, Tunbridge Wells)

If this strikes a chord with you please get in touch to hear more or to sign up for the workshops. Updates on the project will also be posted on Empathy Action’s Facebook page.

“The Empathy Deficit”

In December 2006, the then Senator for Illinois, Barack Obama, describe d how a country must overcome a deficit in empathy to address the needs of those at risk in society.

6 years later philosopher Roman Krznaric built on this, calling for a new era and the need to move from a world of introspection to a worldview of ‘outrospection‘. He stated the medium for this as empathy.

Fast forward to 2017 and Andrew Halls, Headmaster of King’s College School London, says that the younger generation are increasingly becoming ‘phone fixated’ and ‘me-focused’. He has highlighted this deficit in empathy in children and has introduced lessons specifically to teach empathy at his school.

Andrew Halls and King’s College School are embarking on a Pastoral Conference, convening over a 100 other Heads and educators to address this widening gap in empathy. The ‘Mind the Gap! Tackling the empathy deficit in schools and colleges’ conference being held this week at King’s has attracted emerging research from Dr Sara Konrath and other expert speakers ranging from Professor Tanya Byron, Dr Cat Sebastian, Michael Frayn, Dr Tom Harrison and Jo Berry.

Empathy Action will play a role at the conference, showcasing ‘The Poverty Trap’ slum simulation with 100 year 7 & 8 students, allowing the conference delegates to experience empathy teaching in action.

Teaching empathy has been described as:

a crucial mission for our times”

In a selfie obsessed generation, more and more people are beginning to see the vital role empathy plays in deepening understanding in students.

Co founders Matthew Gurney and Ben Solanky founded Empathy Action with a similar view, that empathy must be redeemed in a world saturated and numbed with mass information.

Matthew shared the crucial role of empathy in humanitarian work at the UN World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul 2016, and more recently at the Global People’s Summit.

Empathy Action are not the only group teaching empathy. An emerging cohort of organisations are also proactively pursuing this mission.

If you are interested to find out more or book a simulation please get in touch.