Note for Parents and Carers

Listen, listen, and listen some more.
Students will have many emotionally laden stories to tell. The most loving response family and friends can have, is to listen until all the stories have been told (and re-told). This will not just happen in a busy family without planning or a changing of priorities for a period of time. Giving up TV viewing or computer time to talk over a coffee/tea or a ‘walk-n-talk’ can provide rich times of relationship with your child.

Expect the student to be a different person. 
Global experiences change a person. Encounters with poverty, a new culture, inability to communicate in an unknown language and being an ethnic minority, possibly for the first time, will alter the way your child views and interacts with the world, including you and your family. Seek to discover the changes in the student and help him/her to make adjustments to living back in Australia. Your child may be experiencing grief at saying goodbye to people with whom they have connected. If you need to more fully understand and help your child with grief please visit the following web site: http://www.grief.org.au review the section on ‘Understanding Grief’

Help the student find places to share his/her story. 
Encourage the returning student to speak at gatherings and help them to make contact with Youth Groups, schools or any other groups that would be interested in hearing about their experience. If a student does not like to speak in public, encourage him/her to invite family and friends over for small gatherings where stories and pictures from the trip can be shared. Encourage the student to revisit the blog site and review the trip with you to help process the events they experienced.