This project creates opportunities for Burmese refugees to increase their communication and I.T. skills.

This project involves working with Sheffield's Burmese community. The majority of these were of Karen ethnicity and the majority of these students came to the UK under the UNHCR resettlement scheme for refugees. Many people in this group have had no or little education but have a desire to maintain contact with others in their own country and those displaced to other parts of the UK and across the world. This project creates opportunities for refugees to increase their communication and I.T. skills.

It is estimated that 40 participants who have not traditionally been involved in learning, will learn to use low level new media technologies, for example mobile phones and flip cameras (moving and still images), MP3 players and laptop computers (writing, editing content, publishing to web-sites) to:

• record their experience of life in Burma and life as a refugee in Sheffield
• develop a ‘community reporters’ role, making content to keep others informed
• inter generational interviews to increase understanding of different cultures, here and in the home country.

Research with this group is ongoing and has focused so far on their communication practices across their global diaspora.