This third book in the Refugee Journeys series follows the story of a boy from Chechnya. In 2001 when Chechens were at war with Russia, he was on his way to school in the capital Grozny when he stepped on a landmine. His leg had to be amputated and eventually he and his father went to the UK for expert treatment and fitting of an artifical leg. As it was unsafe for them to return to Chechnya, the family sought asylum in the UK. Eventually Hamzat's mother and sister joined them in London and now the family are learning to adapt to their new life after the horror of living in a war zone.
This poignant and at times harrowing story reveals the bravery of Hamzat and his family in facing and overcoming their circumstances to start a new life. Simply told and atmospherically illustrated with photographs and colour illustrations, this is a powerful book that will move all who read it and also be a valuable resource for supporting Citizenship learning in KS2 and KS3 classroooms and libraries.
Other titles in the series: Gervelie's Journey, Mohammed's Journey
Excerpt -
Early days – Grozny, 1993–2000
The war between the Chechen fighters and the Russians had been going on since 1991. My dad has told me a lot about this and why people were fighting the Russians. I don’t really understand it. All I remember of that time is war. It was just better or worse war, but always war. We were always hungry, afraid and cold in winter. Very, very cold. We still
went to school and I liked that and being with my friends.
Our school had been bombed, but we had lessons OK in the shell of the school buildings.
That was my life. You just got used to it. My mum and dad said it was hard. There was no electricity or gas after the 1994-95 Russian bombings. Even the sewers were all blocked up. I remember when I was five going down to a spring to get water early in the morning and carrying a two-litre drum back. It was heavy. We were hiding in a basement in those days and it was cold and dark, and scary at night with the bombings. Mornings were OK as they mostly bombed at night.
