"Understanding the Unimaginable: A Conversation on the Global Refugee Crisis" was hosted by the Refugee Outreach Collective (ROC), a Registered Student Organization on campus whose goal is to raise awareness about the global refugee crisis. The event ran for nearly four hours and featured two speeches, a panel and refugee simulation.

“(The refugee crisis) is not always extensively covered in the news, or you don’t get the full story” said Julia Dobija, secretary of ROC. “What we do is really important in filling in the gaps.”

The majority of the event took place in Anspach Hall room 162. A table with a white ROC banner sat on the stage, with boxes of cleaning supplies and toiletries surrounding it. These were for volunteers and audience members at the event to help make care packages for refugees. Volunteers wore black t-shirts, which read: “Diversity strengthens society. Kindness creates community.”

The most interactive part of the event was the dice simulation of being a Syrian refugee. The objective was to “travel” from Syria to America by rolling dice and going down a row of paper on the wall, each representing different countries. The audience was divided into groups, each starting at Syria. Each person received one dice and rolled them in their hands. The number they rolled corresponded with one of six scenarios on each sheet.

Sometimes the scenario called for them to flee to another country, or maybe to a Syrian safe zone. Other times, participants were forced into a military group, and their journey ended. Each person was given another chance the next round.

The purpose of this simulation was to give people the experience of unpredictability and struggle of being a refugee.

“We want to pose questions to all of you,” Dobija said. “If you were a person in Syria living amongst the war and you were forced to leave from home, what might that journey look like?”

Most people did not make it to America in the simulation. One participant said she “died” on the first roll by stepping on a land mine. Along the journey, people moved from country to country and some “drowned” by trying to swim from Turkey to Greece. Some journeys ended when their dice rolls made them pregnant or sex slaves.

Not all outcomes were bad. Some scenarios made people settle in other countries besides the U.S.

“It definitely brought more of an appreciation for my life,” said Ludington junior Miranda Warmuskerken. “Knowing that, all in a roll of the dice, it’s a matter of luck for somebody to make it to a safe place and what we consider our safety is not what they consider safe.”

There was also a panel that discussed where forced migrants end up.

One of the panelists, Benjamin Machar, a Central Michigan University alumnus, currently teaches political science at Towson University in Baltimore. He is also a “lost boy” from the Republic of Sudan -- a term used to describe men who fled from Sudan during the Second Sudanese Civil War. He traveled from Ethiopia to Kenya and eventually settled in the U.S. in 2001. Machar discussed his experience from fleeing a war-torn country and coming to the U.S. during his speech.

“This is a serious matter -- be involved with public policy and public debate.” Machar said. “Let your voice be heard.”

Other panelists include:

Prakash Adhikari, political science faculty member
Judi Harris, program director for Refugee Services at St. Vincent Catholic Charities
Sophia Koufopoulou, former political science faculty member at CMU and Michigan State University

They talked about the different kinds of refugees, what refugee camps are like and what might drive someone to leave their home.

Dobija said ROC hosted they event because they want people to have drive to take action about helping forced migrants and to spread the information they learned to other people.

“We want them to be inspired by the things they hear today, so they can go out and makes changes,” Dobija said.