RESPECT International Blog

by Michelle Jette

Jenkins Macedo, a Liberian refugee and previous Program Coordinator for RESPECT Ghana, is involved in coordinating materials for the Sustainable Agricultural Programme (SAP) Liberia project, including books and other educational supplies.

SAP-Liberia, a registered non-profit, non-political, non-religious and non-governmental organization, was established in January 2002, with the mandate to implement community-based recovery and development programs.

Using IBX shipping, a company which ships out of the United States to Monrovia, Liberia, Jenkins has also coordinated the shipment of a Watt Generator, which will be used to power the house.

The process of paying for the land is already underway, and with the exception of downsizing the original size of the building the finances seem reasonable. Jenkins next steps include revisiting the site for the SAP-Liberia project sometime in the near future.

Through collaboration with local and international institutions and organizations, as well as with the government of Liberia, SAP-Liberia works with refugees and others in need within the Republic of Liberia.

by Chitrangada Singh

Shetha, an experienced cook and a first-time solar cooker user, will take a step ahead that could prove to be a life-altering experience for many families in West Africa. She is working on a project to introduce solar cookers to West African families and provide them an alternative means of energy.

At RESPECT International, Shetha currently administers a letter exchange program for children in Ghana. The idea of using solar cookers came upon her while she was identifying a project to run along with the letter exchange program.

Feeling very optimistic about overcoming the challenges, she is positive that this technology will be well-received by the people, particularly in replacing the tedious gathering of firewood for their daily energy consumption.

Shetha is keen to build awareness of solar cookers and their function especially to school children. Although wary of the lack of technological know-how that could present a challenge, she is hopeful of the outcome.

She will consider a small number of people as a starting target group. While gathering more information and experience, she plans then to focus primarily on female students.

This is going to be the first project of its kind and RESPECT is proud to be funding and organizing the pilot project.

by Linda Caie

“At first I thought it was an animal – a beaten dog maybe. A strangulated wailing sound that filled the hotel lobby. A sound you could not escape, a sound full of bad news. I walked outside, following the direction of the wailing. There in the hotel garden, near the glittering blue pool and the flame trees a man in a red T-shirt was begging for his life. He was surrounded by soldiers – three of them I counted – crowding in around him, pushing and then punching and kicking. A dark trickle of blood flowed from a wound in his neck.”

This passage was taken from Rage and Brutality in Freetown written by Fergal Keane on life in the Sierra Leone capital under rebel attack in 1999.

During Sierra Leone’s civil war from 1991 to 2002, tens of thousands Sierra Leoneans died and more than two million were displaced, states the CIA – World Factbook. Now home to more than 27,000 refugees fleeing warring neighbouring countries, and with Sierra Leonean refugees starting to return home, Sierra Leone is working to rebuild itself and the shattered lives of its people.

However, this is no easy task. As John Miana Jnr, Executive Director of Aid Train Sierra Leone, explains: “[The] Government’s efforts towards the sustenance of peace and democracy is frustrated by the daytime attacks along streets/highways; the midnight knocks at sleeping doors, arson, rape, murder, political violence and other dangerous crimes at places of public entertainment including bars and restaurants. In all scenarios, young people conspicuously remain the perpetrators.

“In Sierra Leone today, the problem of young people’s development remains largely unaddressed and the problem can be squarely and undeniably ascribed to the un-sustainability of livelihood amidst conflict…In the case of the literate class, there are many young people graduating today from high schools, colleges and universities storming corridors of government offices and NGOs in quest for job opportunities, and for which they are given little or no consideration, despite their having academic qualifications.

“Some are unfortunately dropped at the height of interviews for deficiency of knowledge in certain domains such as computer (skills), project management, etc…furthermore, the situation becomes compounded with the problem of youth-dropouts in conflict situations or those that do not acquire any non-formal education, and roam the streets unemployed, not engaged in any professional trade either. This is in the case of the illiterate class.”

Aid Train Sierra Leone is a not-for-profit NGO that hopes to both get youths off the street and to develop their personal skills and capabilities through:

* conducting workshops, seminars, symposia and other socio-educational activities/programmes for youth;
* coordinating with government and local/international training institutions and agencies to advocate for internal and external training opportunities for youth; and
* coordinating and organizing socio-cultural and other activities including drama, sports, agriculture, arts & craft that can positively develop the minds of youths

Even in the midst of the civil war, the potential of Sierra Leone was recognized, as journalist Keane attributes to a man named “Fred”: “What a country this could be…With all its diamonds and fishing and these lovely people. It could be such a country.”

As a new organization, Aid Train Sierra Leone is seeking partners interested in helping the organization achieve its goals and give young Sierra Leoneans the opportunity to create the country it could be.

by Seigo Robinson
The Problem: Cost-effective and reliable fuel sources

War-affected communities in the West Africa region are often faced with the problem of not being able to find a cheap and reliable fuel source for heating and cooking. Many households spend some 25 per cent or more of their income on cooking fuel.

Alternatively, people can spend many hours getting to and chopping down firewood which damages the environment. A potential solution that is attracting increasing attention is the concept of the solar cooker.
The Solution: Solar cooker

There are a multitude of benefits that the solar cooker concept can bring:

* Safety
o Fire-free cooking is vastly safer (especially for children)
o Lack of smoke is much better for health, reducing irritation to eyes and lungs
* Health
o Sanitized dishes and utensils
o Moderate temperatures preserve nutrients in food
o Nutrient-high legumes can be cooked that would not have been affordable previously owing to the amount of fuel required for the long cooking times needed for legumes
* Economics
o Saves money on cooking fuels
* Convenience
o Moderate temperatures mean no stirring is required as food will not burn
o Removal for need to collect firewood (solar cookers can remove up to 90 per cent of firewood collection time)
o Pots and pans are easy to clean and reduces the time and requirement for collecting more water for washing

Initiative: Identification and dissemination of affordable solar cooker concept

One issue with current solar cookers is that they can cost up to $200 USD (about €149 EUR) and are not an affordable option for war-affected communities.

Therefore, to assist war-affected communities to establish solar ovens in their own community, RESPECT International has set itself a mission to:

* Research what designs have the potential to produce affordable solar cookers
* Determine what cookers would be most appropriate for what purpose with consideration of costs/skills/materials required to construct them in situ via an on-the-ground survey
* Produce an instruction manual on how to build and use the decided upon designs and spread this information among the war-affected communities

The team has already completed Phase 1: researching different solar cooker designs and getting a survey answered from a contact in Liberia to provide input about the type of materials available, the type of food being cooked, and the cooking habits of the people.

Over the coming months, the team will continue to pursue this mission to successfully deliver a tailored handbook that can help the lives of refugees in West Africa.
The team

The team includes:

* Marc Schaeffer, RESPECT International, Coordinator
* Shetha Koon Myers, the Liberian contact
* Gao Xiang Chen, who is pursuing a neuroscience major at the University of Rochester
* Seigo Robinson, a management consultant with a Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from Cambridge University
* Rameez Riaz, who is studying chemical and bioengineering at McMaster University
* Natelie Byczynski, an environmental engineer with an MBA and project management diploma

by Ravipal Bains

Since January 2009, Eye to Eye Child Care (EECC), which participates in RESPECT International’s Letter Writing Exchange programme, has initiated a campaign to help the children in the South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (D R Congo), with their tuition fees. At the outset, it was intended to help only 50 students but by the end of school year 2009-2010 the number had increased to 138.

In its 2009 Report entitled Face to Face With the Enemy, EECC provided an update on its operations, the people whom it serves and the conditions under which it operates.

The lack of education facilities is only one of the problems that children face in the D. R. Congo. Years of civil war has resulted in the death of more than 300,000 people and further displacement of nearly 2.3 million people.

As a result, millions of people still are living in transitional camps. The situation is so dire that people require food ration supplies from the United Nations to help them survive. To cook their rations, people, especially children, leave the transit camps to gather twigs and roots for use as firewood. The barren nature of the land and the armed militia around the camp compound the problems further.

The report highlights the situation of one of the students, Riziki, who has been living in the Ruzizi transit camp for three months, after the militia burnt her home in Remera.

Recounting one of the incidents, Riziki says: “The militia ambushed us. They pointed rifles at our heads. We were forced to lie on the floor. Some of the children were taken and assaulted. My sister would not stop crying. They let me go, I was lucky…that time.”

The EECC reports that the risk of encountering militia is very real and what they do to little children is totally up to them. If children are lucky, they only steal the children’s tools. At worst, they beat them and leave them for dead.

The situation in Uvira, the City of the South Kivu province, has become so severe that many development agencies are being forced to pull out. And the few remaining development charities are striving to make a difference with simple, sustainable solutions.

Oscar Benjamin, EECC director in Uvira, says that the EECC has entered into a relationship with Practical Actions. Together they have implemented a policy of employing locals so they can carry on helping the children of Uvira long after Western development workers leave.

Using a unique project developed by Practical Action in the 2007, Oscar and his team have taught children to develop a self protection system out of abuse and care. This is important as there are no child courts, neither in the camp nor in the city.

Explaining the care and protection project, Oscar says that the children need only a safe place to stay and to go to school.

“That halves the number of times they must venture into vicious sub-Saharan shale to search for firewood. That halves the chance of them being ambushed. Of being assaulted. Of being murdered,” he says. “We are making a real difference to thousands of children in Riziki position – the child protection and care project has already saved many lives.”

In the school year 2009/2010, there were a total of 138 students – 10 primary schools has 122 pupils and four secondary schools has 16 pupils.

The project has proved to be really successful socially, with the whole community expressing its gratitude towards the People to People Link (PPTL). Well aware of the devastating effect of the war, people are hopeful that the timely gesture from PTPL in the form of funds at the start of 2009/2010 session, can restore hope to children, especially in Fizi (a territory in South Kivu), and the DRC in general.

People to People Link made a payment of $1,770.00 USD (approximately £1,188 GBP; €1320 EUR) for the project.

One of the difficulties encountered with the programme is that the number of children who need to get enrolled in the programme is far more than the number currently enrolled and also many other children suffer from the lack of medical care.

EECC has listed a number of recommendations and requirements in its report, including a need for an additional $5 USD (£3.35 GBP; €3.73 EUR) to go along with $2 USD (£1.34 GBP; €1.49 EUR) per month fee for participation in selective examinations and a micro-credit programme to fight against poverty and to create income-generating activity.

Further, there is a need to organize a meeting involving all the students in which they can share their experiences among themselves, as well as a health care assistance programme. Finally, a National Coordination Office may be set up to allow the development of PTPL in partnership with other children and women organizations.

Wed Nov 5 2003
By Martin Zeilig
Winnipeg Free Press

AS the founder and international co-ordinator of RESPECT International, Marc Schaeffer is helping to “build bridges between non-refugee students and refugee students” around the world through pen-pal letter exchanges.

Schaeffer, 33, a teacher in the literacy program at Stevenson Britannia Adult High School in St. James, began RESPECT (Refugee Education Sponsorship Program: Enhancing Communities Together) two years ago after seeing the work being done at the Winnipeg Refugee Education Network.

“It (WREN) does all kinds of great work raising funds for refugee-related charities and generally building awareness of refugee issues among people in Winnipeg. It also sponsors refugees (who move here),” says Schaeffer, whose wife, Kae Sasaki, is artistic director of RESPECT.

“At one point, I really wanted to help refugee communities directly in the refugee camps worldwide.”

Besides the letter exchanges, RESPECT’s other two stated goals are to increase awareness of refugee issues among non-refugee students in participating countries, and to encourage students to raise some funds for their sponsored refugee school.

Rylee Cizik, 17, was already a member of WREN when Schaeffer asked her to become involved with RESPECT two years ago. “I thought it would be a good opportunity to continue to put forward action for refugees,” says the Grade 12 student at Westwood Collegiate, who is now a board member of RESPECT.

She’s amazed at how RESPECT has grown into an international organization since its inception.

After coming up with the idea for RESPECT, Schaeffer searched the Internet for refugee schools in various countries that were connected on-line.

“I was introduced to a number of refugee communities and groups that work with them,” states Schaeffer.

One of the organizations that helped him was the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

“I contacted them directly via e-mail. They kindly introduced me to a number of their partner organizations,” says Schaeffer. “I really spent a couple of months on the Internet until I was able to build up a significant number of contacts in refugee communities and related NGOs (non-governmental organizations). My original dream was to get used school supplies like textbooks, microscopes and sports stuff, and have them shipped to these communities. But it occurred to me that it would be wise to first introduce students here to refugee students worldwide, firstly with a letter exchange, and then send small care packages.”

Today, RESPECT has co-ordinators in 15 countries. Schaeffer mentions that several schools in Canada are also involved in the organization.

“The number of schools continues to grow,” he says. “Students from a francophone school in Manitoba were introduced to refugee students in Cameroon recently.”

He also notes that 30 Manitoba students attended a High School Refugee Awareness and Youth Leadership Conference sponsored by WREN in May.

“RESPECT put on a workshop and introduced those students to refugee students in Northern Uganda and Guinea,” says Schaeffer, noting that Sisler High School, Vincent Massey Collegiate, the Mennonite Central Committee and the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, among other groups, are also working with RESPECT.

What can I do to help refugees through RESPECT?

We have many opportunites for volunteers to help refugees. Examples include:

* Sign up students to participate in the Global Letter Exchange
* Write articles
* Hold fundraisers to support the Global Letter Exchange and other projects for refugee schools
* Tutor a class through RESPECT University
* Translate website content

We list our assignments on the United Nations Volunteer (UNV) website.

You can find our current opportunities by searching on the Opportunity Search page.

* Enter RESPECT into the Keyword field.
* Click on the Search button.
* Our opportunities will have Refugee Education Sponsorship Program listed under the Organization column.
* Select an assignment you find interesting.

Here it is the very First Issue of the Magazine edited by RESPECT REFUGEES International that includes the most important articles from the E-zines published in 2009 and the beginning of 2010.

Hope you will enjoy reading the magazine and you will share this with your friends.

We’s like to thank the Authors of this issue:

Shannon Alderman

Raja M Ali

Maria Brundin

Trish Harris

Kenneth Karest Lewela

Abby Jenkins Macedo

Paulo Muller

Laura Premoli

Mohammed Riazuddin

Suzan Salem

Linda Salim

Marc Schaeffer

Kirsty Semple

Uma Sharma

Olivia Wallace

Atuu Waonaje

Barny Whitwham

To Dowload this Issue, click here

[ http://issuu.com/enjoythemarket/docs/respect ]

by Giselle Trimmer

Close your eyes.

Now imagine you have escaped from the worst forms of violence, you live in the most precarious of conditions and you struggle to feed your family, day by day. Would you not welcome just about anything that would help make your life a bit easier?

For refugees around the globe, this extra help may be found in solar cookers.

How do they work?

It is easy. A solar cooker is a device that changes the light energy of the sun into heat energy to cook food. Although there are several different designs of solar cookers, the following three are the most common types:

Box cookers: These cook at moderate to high temperatures and often accommodate multiple pots. Worldwide, they are the most widespread. There are several hundred thousand in India alone.

Curved concentrator cookers or parabolics: These cook fast at high temperatures, but require frequent adjustment and supervision for safe operation. Several hundred thousand exist, mainly in China. They are especially useful for large-scale institutional cooking.

Panel cookers: Simple, cheap, effective – most panel cookers are just a packet of interconnected reflectors, incorporating elements of box and curved concentrator cookers. They unfold into a small bracket of reflectors around a central space where a cooking vessel sits in a transparent container of a heat resistant plastic.

The simple cooker works well and is one of the most popular solar cookers on the planet. Solar Cookers International’s CooKit is the most widely used.

Solar cooking can bring a number of benefits to refugee communities, including:

* Stimulating environmental sustainability by reducing the demand on forests, thus lessening the environmental impact on host communities.
* Reducing health hazards by diminishing the risk of contracting waterborne diseases, like diarrhea, and respiratory diseases due to the acrid smoke coming from cooking fires, subjecting refugees to levels that can be as much as 100 times above the international safety standards.
* Improving women’s conditions. A 2005 report by Doctors Without Borders found that 82 per cent of rape attacks occur when women are outside the populated villages, usually while searching for firewood. Furthermore, women and girls spend hours collecting firewood and then tending fires. Solar cookers require little attention, hence freeing time to pursue education, increase food production and generate income.

Many of the refugees who have used the solar cookers have spoken glowingly of their benefits, as carried in the Solar Cookers International, Solar Cooker Review. Here are some of their comments:

* “We keep clean, do not have tears in our eyes and have no running noses from smoke.”
* “We do not have to go and look for firewood in faraway places where we do not want to go (for safety reasons).”
* “There is no fire danger for our children or our tents.”
* “We can use the saved firewood collection time to do handiwork (for sale and buying extra food or milk), to be with our children, or to learn from the classes taught in the camp.”

Despite these touching testimonies, when it comes to implementing the new cooking technologies in a refugee situation, a number of drawbacks have been encountered.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in one of its reports identified some of the barriers to a sound implementation of solar cooking, by carrying out an analysis of pilot programmes in Pakistan which used the box cooker, Ethiopia where the CooKit was used, and Kenya, which used both types.

by Barney Whitwham

Refugee Stories, part of the Refugee Communities History Project (RCHP), recently announced a new online resource designed primarily to support Key Stage 3 Citizenship learning.

This is one of a number of Learning Resources created by the RCHP, which was established to record previously untold stories of refugees who have settled in London since the 1951 United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees, to highlight the enormous contributions the refugees make to the city.

Designed to develop an understanding and raise awareness of refugee issues among pupils, the content of this new Learning Resource is free to download and can be easily customised to suit the needs of specific classes.

The specific aims are to:

* challenge pupils’ personal views and feelings about refugees and asylum seekers;
* develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of the reasons why refugees have been forced to leave their countries of origin;
* counteract inaccuracies and negative stereotypes in some media reporting of refugees in the United Kingdom;
* raise pupils’ awareness of the valuable contributions refugees make to their host countries – politically, economically, culturally and socially;
* develop pupils’ understanding that, above all, refugees are individuals, just like themselves.

The content is provided in the format of five individual lessons, with a range of supporting materials to suit mixed abilities. Each lesson can be easily adapted, and include suggested homework and follow-up activities.

The support materials are varied and engaging, and include information cards, quizzes, maps, video clips and PowerPoint presentations. While aimed at KS3 Citizenship, there is great scope for linking to other areas of the curriculum, particularly History, Geography and English.

The material is provided through Refugee Stories collected by the RCHP. The Project is run by the Evelyn Oldfield Unit as a partnership and is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the City Parochial Foundation, through the Trust for London.

The bulk of this work took place between June 2004 and April 2007 and, in 2006, the project won the 2006 Charity Award for arts, culture and heritage.

Over 150 people took part, from 15 refugee groups. It is from this wealth of information that the Learning Resources have been developed.

With asylum and immigration remaining a divisive political issue, particularly in the run-up to a General Election, it is pleasing to see high quality teaching material available to provide a much greater understanding of the subject for a younger generation.