Visualization is a facilitated training technique that is a combination of interactive storytelling, simulation, and roleplay. To use this technique, you tell a story about an imaginary aspect of the listener’s life. Each participant listens to the story (preferably with their eyes closed) visualizing their role as the protagonist of the story.
Here is an adapted version of a story I used in a visualization session with a group of participants volunteering to work with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
During a period of political unrest, my parents disappeared. That left me and my old grandfather to take care of each other. In the middle of a night, a few old men, including my grandfather, rounded up all the children and started walking away from the village.
We walked for many days, several hours each day. We did not have enough food to eat. One of my friends was in the same group and the two of us walked side by side. But my friend became very weak and the people decided to leave him behind. It made me sad, but I had to obey my grandfather and the other elders. So, I continued walking, holding your grandfather’s hand.
After 18 days of walking day and night, we reached a refugee camp. But we had to wait for 3 days in a long line to be admitted to the camp.
Because my grandfather was very old, they gave him a tent inside the refugee camp. They considered me to be a child. Our tent had space for two bamboo mats to sleep. Behind the tent, there was a small garden plot.
Every morning, I had to walk half a kilometer and stand in line behind other children and women at a tap to fill a plastic bucket with water. The water was rationed. I got 10 liters for the day.
We were given food rations every month. We received 5 kilograms of maize and wheat flour. We also got vegetable oil and salt and beans. My grandfather sold a part of our food ration to other refugees for cash. We did not get enough food and we were hungry most of the time.
There was a clinic in the middle of the refugee center. I took my grandfather to the clinic and stood in a long line. The nurse checked him out and gave him some tablets and tonic.
My grandfather’s health was getting better. He wanted to take good care of me. I wanted to take good care of him. Things began to look better.
Until an epidemic started spreading throughout the camp….