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Love of Korean pop links UK teenagers with Palestinian refugees

LONDON, Feb 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The sugary pop songs of South Korean groups BTS, EXO and BlackPink might be sung in Korean but it has not stopped Palestinian refugee teenager Tasnim from being an avid fan from her home in war-torn Syria.

To Tasnim's surprise, it is a love shared by students at London's Connaught School for Girls with whom her school in Damascus holds Skype calls as part of a project to connect refugee students in the Middle East with European and U.S. pupils.

"My favourite kind of music is K-pop music, Korean music," exclaimed Tasnim during a recent video call, sitting alongside classmates from two schools in the Syrian capital run by aid agency United Nations Relief and Welfare Agency (UNRWA).

UNRWA was established by the U.N. General Assembly in 1949 after thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes in the 1948 war that followed Israel's creation.

"Even though we are worlds apart ... we're all teenagers, so we found some common ground," said Asiya, who volunteered to join the 'My Voice, My School' project run by UNRWA and social enterprise Digital Explorer to learn more about refugees.

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