Before entering the room, students lined up at a mock border checkpoint, the first stop of the Camp Hope experience. Behind the desk stood Hafiz Ibrahim, an employment counsellor with YWCA Prince Albert who was helping run the simulation.

Some students were waved through, while others were stopped and questioned. Ibrahim handed each participant a small cloth bag, an ID card, and a few fake bills, explaining that these represented all a refugee might carry, just enough to symbolize what a person might carry when escaping their home.

The exercise, though simple, carried weight. It set the stage for what followed, a walk through the realities of refugee life. From that moment, the students’ journey through Camp Hope began.

“The main lesson we want them to learn is that whoever comes here a

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