ResQ is sailing in schools!

One of ResQ’s objectives is to promote a culture of respect for human rights, protection of life and dignity: this is why, in addition to organising cultural and awareness-raising initiatives for the general public, we decided to launch a specific project dedicated to perhaps the most important audience: our future, our young people.

Thanks to the land crews, with trained speakers and educational kits adapted to different ages, ResQ has landed in the classrooms of primary, middle and high schools throughout Italy. After some pilot experiences in several high schools, the schools project took a stable form in 2022 through funding from UBI, the Italian Buddhist Union.

In the 2022/2023 school year, we met more than 6,300 students, with two meetings per week. Over 9,000 students since the start of the project.

Why education?

“Putting a search and rescue vessel at sea to save lives in the Mediterranean was our first goal, and thanks to all the people who believed in the project we achieved it in an incredibly short time. But along with this goal we had, and still have, another one: contributing to the development of a new mentality, a narrative of migration free of prejudice and fake news,’ explains Francesca Fabris, teacher and founding partner of ResQ, who tells us about the initiative and how to join. “In our meetings with children, we tell them about the reasons that drive so many people, often their peers, to face the sea and, more generally, long and dangerous journeys, far from their homeland. The stories of the rescues we have experienced and the people we have saved are the best way to bring this narrative to life”.

The students are protagonists

Awareness-raising is at the heart of the work of ResQ land crews and could not fail to pass through schools, but there is more, as Francesca recounts. “The new generations experience the multicultural dimension very naturally and show greater sensitivity to these issues than adults. That is why with our activity in schools we will not limit ourselves to exposing the experience we had in the Mediterranean and the reasons for migration, but we will ask the students to become the protagonists of this story themselves. We will provide a communication kit to those of them who are most interested in getting involved and committed, so that they can create messages and have the opportunity to spread them, through interactive methods and role-plays”.

Contact us!

“Teachers, parents and, more generally, educators who are interested in hosting our ground crews in their schools or educational realities can make a request by writing to our Education team: we will decide together the most suitable project for the students involved”, concludes Francesca. “Within ResQ we have journalists, lawyers, experts of different kinds who can adapt the message to the specific needs of the children to be involved. More generally, we will give teachers the opportunity to include our proposal in the civic education course that is now officially included in the annual curriculum’.