RESPECT International Blog

RESPECT International is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation which provides a variety of initiatives aimed at improving the lives of both urban refugees and those living in camps.

Around the world a team of volunteers work towards achieving RESPECTs main aims: to raise awareness on refugee issues among world youth; to build relationships between refugee and non-refugee students through a pen-pal program, and make the first two possible by promoting events and advertising RESPECT’s ideals in order to raise funds and recruit more volunteers to work with the organization.

Since RESPECT was founded in 2002, its activities have been well documented in the ezine: a publication which highlights the collaborative nature of this truly international organisation.

The Letter Exchange Program aims to bring refugee and non refugee children from many countries together, building relationships and promoting the children’s desire for rewarding friendships. This is beneficial because it:

• Stimulates curiosity and learning among the children.
• Creates the likelihood that as adults they will get seriously involved in refugee issues in the future.
• Increases awareness of refugee issues among the wider community as parents take an interest in who their children are writing to

RESPECT University (RU) was created to bring post-secondary education to refugees and internally displaced persons. This benefits people who have had their education interrupted by war and violence. It is important, despite this interruption, to continue to build for the future and cultivate hope. Through volunteer tutors and coordinators from many countries (Canada, United States, England, France, Pakistan, Brazil, for example) RESPECT U is now able to offer courses in different academic fields.

RESPECT U is a dynamic project. Coordinators in the field balance the needs and requests of the refugees with the availability of tutors in particular fields. The university began by teaching Social Psychology as a way of addressing the physiological needs of the refugees. Helping them to understand their own thoughts, needs and expectations and perhaps find ways to deal with the day to day suffering that haunts many of the students.

By the second year of operations RESPECT had already connected 1200 students from Azerbaijan, Benin, Canada, Guinea, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Taiwan, Uganda and United States.

Also, a network of affiliates and partners which is still growing provides material support and human resources which make the education and letter exchange programs possible.

It was with the help of organizations like iEARN, Roots & Shoots, the Winnipeg Refugee Education Network, Teachers Without Borders, and Reach Out, among others, and the fundraising events of non-refugee schools communities, that RESPECT could manage to send computers, books, school and office material, toys, and other equipments and goods to refugee schools.

During 2004/2005, volunteers from the francophone world (Canada, France, DRC, Guinea) set up a regular and increasing letter exchange in French, which gave more visibility to RESPECT in Europe and led to the creation of the RESPECT European branch in Barcelona, Spain, in February 2006.

After the success and growth of the first couple of years the next few years were a time of management and recognition of the results letting RESPECT take its place among refugee services worldwide.

The future for RESPECT is the hope to build contacts in and run the education and letter exchange programs with Refugee students and communities on the Thailand-Burma border, Afghanistan, Nepal and Azerbaijan. Also, the maintenance and growth of the initiatives which are already up and running to continue to improve the lives of refugees around the world.

To read more about RESPECT or subscribe to our ezine click here .

For more information on RESPECT University click here.

RESPECT International website.

The Salone Diary is a vivid account of life in Sierra Leone written by David LaMattina, from the Brownstones Crew. It recounts the day to day life of refugee children in Freetown over the period of a two week stay for their latest documentary Brownstones, Red Dirt.

Having already filmed children from Brooklyn speaking about their lives, the second part of the story was to record the Brownstone Crew meeting and interviewing the refugee children. Done in a rich narrative style, it gives an insight into a world often hidden from mainstream view.

The meeting of these two groups of children was made possible by the RESPECT Letter Exchange Program. This program put non-refugee students in touch with refugee students, allowing them to learn about each others lives and share their experiences.

David shares his experience of the letter writing in the Salone Diary. “These kids have nothing and with each letter they get from Brooklyn,they gain another possession. It’s quite a gift and they treat it delicately, examining it with care while they try to decipher what their pen pal’s life might be like.”

Beginning with the eventful story of travelling from New York to Sierra Leone, the diary goes on to describe the moment when the children first met and focuses on the lives of the Sierra Leone children. They are children who have experienced war first hand and lost their families as a result, some witnessing brutal murders.

Despite this they are children with great humanity and hope for their futures. They dream of making the world a better place and by telling their stories they can help everyone to do just that.

Discover the Salone Diary here: http://www.brownstonestoreddirt.com/

To learn more about the RESPECT Letter Exchange Program click here.

Or visit RESPECT International.

clipart provided by: www.worldatlas.com

• To help Lyberian former refugee youths recover from trauma through art and community
• To assist all young people gain an education and have dreams for the future
• To create art which gives people a voice in the world

These are the aims of the Liberian Youth Determination in Adversity (LYDIA). which are put into action through two programs: Youth House and the Women’s Scholarship Fund.

The Women’s Scholarship Fund allows former refugee girls, who have no other resources, pay school fees, buy uniforms, pay for food, trasportation and housing whilst they are getting an education.

Youth House is a home base for teens where they can take part in hip-hop, theatre, and art after-school programs, youth groups, community building programs, and AIDS awareness groups.

The following is by Jenkins Macedo:

“In 2006, the Fifth Project Theatre Company at New York University (NYU) and Professor Daniel Banks ran hip-hop poetry and theatre workshops with the displaced youth living on the Buduburam Liberian Refugee Camp outside of Accra, Ghana.

Teens gathered to learn beat-boxing skills, write poetry and create music in giant ciphers. We met so many open and talented teens, but at every workshop, there was one teenager who kept on surprising us. Her name was Lydia Mulubah.

Lydia was a powerful MC and beat-boxer and, in the male-dominated environment of the refugee camp, her sense of self, fearlessness, and passionate voice in poetry and art was something we were blown away by!

Right before we were to head back to New York, we learned that because of Lydia’s family situation, she would be unable to continue her education. Lydia expressed how much her education meant to her. I was the program coordinator of RESPECT Ghana and, along with several volunteers including Alfred Kayee, RESPECT Ghana’s assistant program coordinator, we set up a scholarship fund for her.

In December 2006, I was resettled to the United States through the US Refugee Resettlement Program and Alfred Kayee became the program coordinator of RESPECT Ghana’s activities at the Buduburam Liberian Refugee Camp in Ghana.

He was very instrumental in the continuation of Lydia’s scholarship. He is also leader of the RESPECT Dramatic Arts Club of which Lydia Mulubah was an active member.

In the past two years, Lydia has been doing well in school, (she graduated from 9th grade!) but recently, the UN refugee camp was shut down. Approximately 17,000 Liberian Refugees, many of whom have been away from Liberia, Togo, Ivory Coast, and Sierra Leone for as long as 15 years, all have had to leave Ghana – Lydia included. Alfred is also back in Liberia, but with constant violence, high inflation of food, and nowhere to live, the situation is very challenging.

At the moment Lydia is currently in school in Liberia. Danielle Levanas, a former graduate student of New York University along with other students of the Fifth Project Theatre Company and Prof. Daniel Banks, were instrumental in setting up a non-profit organization in Liberia. With its branch in the US, it will soon be able to bridge the gap in the lives of refugee youth in Liberia through the arts, education, and community services projects.

RESPECT Liberia is an emerging member of the RESPECT International networks while Liberian Youth Determination In Adversity (LYDIA) is an organization that has been registered as a non-profit community-based organization directly working with youth in Liberia.

Most of the current members of LYDIA were once member of RESPECT Ghana or the RESPECT Intellectual Club and it is great to know that they are willing to volunteer in these harsh and difficult communities to reach the lives of others.

I think this is great and can be better if we only unite our limited and scarce resources in working with youth in these communities in Liberia. I think instead of working separately as LYDIA’s and RESPECT’s staff members in Liberia we could either get into a partnership or unify the two organizations to reduce costs and also reduce the issues of duplicating projects.

Social change in today’s societies can only be possible when we network with like-minded individuals, institutions and organizations in accomplishing our set goals. That doesn’t in anyway means that RESPECT Liberia and LYDIA are going to emerge to become one entity, but building a partnership agreement that will benefit both organizations and at the same time fulfill their set objectives.

Introducing LYDIA youth to the letter exchange program that RESPECT undertakes will also expose those youth to other opportunities and widen their scope of the universe from the corners of Liberia.

RESPECT International, the mother organization of RESPECT Liberia is part of a global network of volunteers and organizations that have the capacity to create awareness and education globally about situations that these youth are encountering in Liberia. In unity we can achieve all that we anticipate to achieve in a very short period and our limited resources will be cost-effective.

We hope that someday both the staff of LYDIA and RESPECT Liberia can realize that working together makes changes possible. I am currently working with RESPECT Ghana and RESPECT International in making sure that RESPECT Liberia start to be an active organization in Liberia instead of one that is passive. I am also a board member of LYDIA and it is a wonder how LYDIA is growing so fast.”

“Youth In Africa (YIA) is a group helping to empower the street kids and disadvantaged young people of Liberia. After discovering RESPECT International through a joint program between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), YIA expressed its interest in the letter exchange program in November 2008.” (Whitwham)

A member of YIA will be interviewed for RESPECT International to promote awareness and discuss their aims and aspirations. The letter exchange program in which the youth of Liberia will exchange letters with Canadian students, will also raise awareness and highlight the problems they face.

The YIA has its base in Monrovia, Liberia, and was established in 2007 in Sengal. “Membership is open to every Liberian who exhibit a strong moral attitude and are ready to work for the promotion of the positive image of Liberia.” (Whitwham) Currently, there are arond 500 young people from many communities in and around Liberia.

Their aim is to unite all Liberians in order to create a strong, wholseome, well-educated, respected youth.

The work is primarily directed towards building a youth centre for troubled teens and to run computer programs across the country. Education and training gives children a purpose and useful work experience. Also available is tutoring in leadership with a focus on Liberian civil rights efforts.

They seek to reduce alcohol and drug use among the youths and run cross country trips to expose the young people to new people and places.

YIA needs more funding for school fees, a car, computers and better facilities. There is also a need to improve interpersonal relationships with many of the young people and it is hoped that participation on the letter exchange will go some way to achieving this.

“The work of the organization is represented by their emblem, which includes the colours yellow, green and white. Yellow signifies a new dawn after a period of darkness, green represents freshness and a new beginning and, finally, white stands for accountability, transparency, purity and oneness in achieving goals.” (Whitwham)

The full artical by Barny Whitwham can be found here.

For more information on the letter exchange click here.

Or visit our website.

The biggest problem for RESPECT is the lack of resources compared to the number of people wanting to learn.

The Refugee Law Project (RLP) is free to students who want or need to learn. However RESPECT is committed to teaching the students to be computer literate and with the seven person staff having to share one computer between them not to mention the students a lack of equipment can be frustrating at best. Fortunately, a fund has been set up with the aim of access to computers for all!

Following renovations RLP now has more space to conduct two classes simultaneously. However they also now have more students to teach. It is not unusual for students to stand throughout lessons due to a lack of chairs or room to put them in.

It is difficult for some students to concentrate because of the crowded conditions. Also, some students have problems both emotional and physical, associated with their past and/or present circmstances. They might have a long distance to walk to school every day and some cannot afford to eat every day. Daily life of work and looking after children leave little time for education and bad living conditions leave them vulnerable to illness. All these factore contribute to the sporadic attendance record and high drop-out factor.

Despite all of this, each class has at its core many regular atendees, such is the desire to learn.

You can learn more about RLP and view a short video on their website

For more on this story click here.

RESPECT University.

Or to visit our website.

“I always refer to myself when I am saying this: my experience as a refugee opened for me doors to discovering and appreciating others. I always act as not belonging to my country, but to the world. It is a process that grows step by step.” Jean Clement Ishimwe

The life of a refugee means being forced into living in a country that is not your own, and often this is not simple or easy. Due to language issues, poverty and trauma the students have trouble integrating into schools. So in 1996 following a movement of refugees from the Great Lakes countries (Rwanda, Burundi, and the Republic Democratic Congo) to Kenya, the Saint Kizito Socio-Cultural Center located in Kabiria, one of the suburbs of Nairobi, Kenya was set up to provide specific facilities for refugee students. It exists under the patronage of Sacred Heart Parish of Degoretti.

Students from this school have gone on to become self-supporting and have entered further education worldwide. A graduate of the Saint Kizitio School, Jean Clement Ishimwe, is from Rwanda, a former refugee of war from 1994 “till now”.

He explains “till now” because, even though “I now have legal documents from Rwanda, I still can’t live there as I wish. All my family members are refugees – my parents still live in refugee camps – and the reasons that made us leave our country are still existing.”

Jean Clement joined the school at its inception and, since graduating, he still has strong links with it. He set up a letter exchange program at the school with RESPECT International. He believes that not only is it good for the students to share their experiences but it also helps to improve their writing skills. As Jean Clement said, he thinks of himself as a citizen of the world not a country. This feeling of openness led him to set up the letter exchange: to allow the refugee children to share their stories internationally.

He goes on to stress the importance of personal connection through writing, explaining that “it is easy to copy and paste a message that is well worded, but it still doesn’t say something about you. With this technology, we are turning away from expressing our really personal feelings that are expressed in letters to common feelings that are found everywhere on the net.

“Sometimes it is psychological. When I receive a letter written by hand I feel a direct contact with the person who wrote it. Writing letters convey not only the message itself, but the whole personality is involved: from the handwriting to the signature. Letters bring people together without an intermediary of a device,” he adds.

For more on this story visit our website.

Our Homepage.

For more information on our Letter Exchange Program click here.