Young war refugees on a peace mission in Westhoek

“We have been organizing OKAN education in our school in Kortemark for about 7 years now,” says OKAN coordinator Jeffrey Dael.

“OKAN, indeed, means Welcome Class for Foreign Language Newcomers. This concept has been unknown to few people in recent years. We currently have 3 classes, in total about 45 students, from all over the world, from all parts of the world, from Peru, across Somalia and Bulgaria to … indeed, recently Ukraine too.”

Especially war refugees

“For our school, which has about 1000 students and is actually located in a village right in the middle of West Flanders, this number of non-native speakers can still count. No fewer than 34 of the 45 students are war refugees and that is something everyone in the classrooms carries. This does not always run smoothly and therefore learning Dutch is often not a priority. Many young people also have a lot of other things on their minds. The war in Ukraine hit the refugees hard were in our class. So close to Belgium… The war literally entered: our classes were joined by 7 Ukrainian students and that number is not yet final.”

“Our two-day event on 9 and 10 May will therefore be given a different meaning. We are going to visit the Peace City of Ypres and visit In Flanders Fields. This time no horror of war that is central, but we want to bring a message of hope to all our students. “We visit the Menin Gate and we visit the Peace Tower in Messines. We look for symbols of hope and peace everywhere. Images speak louder than words. During our two-day stay in Old Skool in Roesbrugge, “says Jeffrey Dael.