Far away From Home: Tibetan Refugee Children Write and Paint their Stories

Being “far from home” is a fate Tibetan refugee children share with many other refugee children in exile write and painter about their lives. Their creative work helps us to understand what is special about their fate and how they live in exile. Over a period f five years the author gathered wide experience of working with these children in different places including India. Nepal and Switzerland. The focus of the work is on the Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamsala. In Dharmshala it was possible to engage in a deep exchange of ideas with the local Tibetan experts in education. A particularly important experience was the opportunity to present numerous pictures and stories to His Holiness the 14th Dalai lama. His deep empathy great significance to the author. His Holiness great significance to the author. His Holiness spontaneously wrote a poem himself in the end of the audience.. Dr. Gabriele Rabkin is a processional psychologist and educator at the Institute for In- Service teacher Training in Hamburg, Germany. She works in national about international challenging projects about children and adults. F.E. she was the leader of the project “Ways to writing and Culture” (Hamburg part of the International cooperation project of UNESCO Institute for education and Hamburg project leader of the second cooperation project with UNESCO Institute and the Institute for In-Service teacher under the title “Family Literacy”, which is especially devoted to the cooperation with migrant parents in the field of school education.