RESPECT International Blog

Oru Refugee Camp. Oru, Ogun State, Nigeria.  2008 figures show that over 3000 people live in Oru Refugee Camp.  These people are originally from many countries on Africa: Liberia, Sierra Leone, Central Africa Republic, Congo, Erytrea, Côte-d’Ivoire, Togo, and more.

Some of these people have lived there for twenty years, children born in this time have known no other home.  integration into Nigerian society has proved difficult leaving the refugees feeling ostracised and persecuted.

The camp clinic closed in 2005 and since then health in the camp has dramatically deteriorated.  Without contraception HIV/AIDS has spread and many more children are born into the abject poverty.  Without a regular income many daughters are forced into prostitution to bring home money for food for their parents and siblings.

Education and training is a fundamental need to allow the refugees to make choices about their future and let them earn an independent living.  This is why the work of RESPECT International is so crucial in this and many other refugee camps.  These camps are supposed to be temporary homes for refugees and offer little or no facilities for people.  But if given no other alternative the people are stuck there and the camps will only get bigger thereby increasing the scale of an already serious problem.

“Children live in slums here because their parents or guardians have little to no money for education, clothing, shoes, housing, medicine and food. They are surrounded by so many hardships, frustrations, and a lack of basic care because their loved ones have died, were lost in the war or have contracted AIDS,” Oscar Benjamin.

Growing up and experiencing the trouble in Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) Oscar Benjamin, at seven years old, had a dream of helping the children affected by the violence.  That dream became reality in 2006 in the form of Eye to Eye Child Care (EECC): a community based, child welfare organization that helps children in Uvira and Fizi in the DR Congo get off the streets, out of the slums, and into school.  EECC is a childrens home which provides shelter, protection, food and education.

“One thousand children live on the streets in these two towns alone (Uvira and Fizi). They make a living doing odd jobs and they are promised money for school and then forced into labor or sex and taken out of the country to Burundi, and Rwanda,” he said.

EECC is also working with the government DR Congo to find ways of taking the children off the streets and into a place of safety and back into education.  More importantly they are working towards campaigns which protect children from being taken advantage of.  It is common for adults to promise to feed street children or pay for education but instead the children then become victims of sexual and physical abuse.  Children are also taken away to Burundi or Rwanda, for example, and used for child labour.  In addition to this, drug and alcohol are ever present dangers on the streets hich the children use as escape mechanisms.

One of the important jobs when moving forward is for the EECC to give the children hope for the future.  One of the ways in which he is achieving this is through RESPECT International’s Global Letter Exchange Program.  Refugee students, under the age of 18, write letters to non-refugee students.  “This gives the children the feeling that an opportunity lies ahead of them. It gives them something to look forward to,” he said.  More than 30 children from the EECC will participate in the program.

“I am surrounded by children who have reached a point of vulnerability where they can’t handle life anymore. Children like myself who had dreams, ambitions and goals but who are surrounded by so many hardships, frustrations, and a lack of basic care because their loved ones have died, are lost in war or have contracted AIDS,” Benjamin said.  The Letter Exchange gives the children something to look forward to and Benjamin said it might give the children of the EECC “a feeling of being valued somewhere in someone else’s life.”

http://www.respectrefugees.org/

Read more in our ezine.

21,500 refugees are currently living in Guinea (UNHCR statistics).  Civil wars in neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone have caused tens of thousands of people to flee their homes and seek safety in Guinea.  However, political uncertainty and a recent past of martial law have left Guinea unstable.  Raising food prices and the decline of basic services have increased resentment in the counrty and therefore increase the chance of violence.

After the voluntaty repatriation programs allowing people to return to their counrties of origin an empasis in now being place on local integration.  Those unwilling or unable to return to their countries of origin, integration is the most sustainable solution.  On a voluntary basis refugees will be given the option to leave the camps and move to the neighbouring comminuities where communtiy based projects will help to integrate them.  These programs are also aimed at areas where there are thought to be as many as 50,000 unregistered refugees.   The environments around the refugee camps will also be regenerated.

The needs now are aimed at increasing the rights of the refugees.  Freedom of movement,  access to education, jobs,  public services,  health facilities, the right to buy and sell property, travel and identity documents, permanent residence and, ultimately, citizenship.

Alexandria Elementary School in Guinea, West Africa is just one of the schools in the country dedicated to providing refugee students with an education.  Established by the UNHCR and the International Rescue Committee in September 2001.  The school is currently attended by 557 students.  They have three buildings, consisting of twelve classrooms and provide lessons from ABC through to class six.  The subjects taught include English, French, Maths, Science, Social Studies and Health.

RESPECT International is working with this and other refugee schools in Guinea to make education available to as many refugee students as possible.  To ensure, despite the disruption to their lives, that they have aspirations for the future and the means to persue them.

Also, the Letter Exchange Program seeks to educate non-refugee students about refugee issues by one-to-one correspondence with refugee students.  This lets people in countries such as Canada, USA, Spain and UK understand what life is like as a refugee.  Also, it allows refugees to learn what life is like in these countries and gives them hope for the future.  In fact the Letter Exchange Program has encouraged a number of refugees to further their education at colleges and universities in countries like USA.

Alexandria Elementary School provides a vital service to the refugee community in Guinea and with international links that organisations such as RESPECT provide them with they can offer great opportunities to children whose lives have been disrupted by violence and war.

The Mike Immaculate Group of Schools, consisting of nursery, primary, secondary schools and a computer college in Nigeria’s capital Lagos want to enter into a partnership with RESPECT International.

“I want to partner with your reputable organisation because I want a group of organisations encouraging communication between young people across the world,” says proprietor Ademola Ogunyebi.

The group of schools educates 36 refugee students and approximately 280 non-refugee students. Through school projects and RESPECTs Letter Exchange Program and student exchanges the group of schools aim to raise awareness and educate refugees. They also wish to get awareness on some of the schools’ educative projects.

In Nigeria education is free but not compulsory. There, a formal education consists of six years of primary school, three years of junior secondary school and three years of senior secondary school, in addition to four years of university or college education.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are approximately 11,800 refugees in Nigeria mostly from Chad, Liberia, the Republic of Congo and Sudan. Half live in refugee camps and half are urban refugees.

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Artists for Humanity will celebrate its 10th anniversary from December 19 to 25, 2009.

Begun December 19, 1999, in Kinshasa the capital of the Democratic Republic Congo by Amisi Mutambala, the Artists for Humanity initiative (ArtHum) mainly worked in the eastern part of the country with a regionally integrated vision.

Conferences, debates, concerts and cultural and arts-based displays on education, peace, human rights, HIV/AIDS will all take place over seven days in Uvira and Fizi territories (South Kivu province in DR Congo) as part of the anniversary celebrations.

Rewards of recognition will be given to actors both local and international who have distinguished themselves as ArtHum volunteers and work with communities in disaster.

Non-profit associations, foundations, enterprises, state institutions, religious structures as well as individuals who are interested are invited to join the event.

For further information, contact Amisi Mutambala at:

• Dieudonné AMISI MUTAMBALA
• Director & Founder
• Artists for Humanity, ArtHum
• Telephone: +243810343785; +25779979121
• Email: arthum_direction@yahoo.fr

Please visit our website.
Or for our ezine click here.

Opened as a day-care center to help families who could not afford to send their children to the local schools, the Elite Friends Academy was opened on January 3, 2005, in Nairobi, Kenya. With many of the children being refugees, orphans and victims of HIV/AIDS the centre was so named because they believe that the children are the leaders of tomorrow and deserve to believe in themselves and be integrated into the community.

From 27 students in 2005 numbers have increased to 73 in 2008. The Elite Friends Academy is a school working under a self-help group known as Ophrah African Foundation (OAF). The academy currently offers the following: baby classes, nursery classes and pre-unity classes.

The objectives of the academy are to assist the orphans and vulnerable within the community, to become an international center for promoting and assisting talents, to campaign and fight against HIV/AIDS, to rid drug abuse from among the community, and to work towards peace and reconciliation.

For further information see our website.

Art teacher at Immaculate Conception High School Virgina Hernadez and her students raised some money to send art supplies to students in Elite Friends Academy in Nairobi, Kenya. They had a bake sale to raise to money. In the photograph Viginia Hernandez is holding a basket of the supplies they sent and the students are taking part in RESPECTs Annual Poster Contest. (For the results of the poster contest see below)

The students from this school were given these supplies by their teacher, Austin W. Ngabwe, who sent photos of the children with a note of thanks.

http://www.respectrefugees.org/

Refugees United is an independent, non-governmental and non-profit registered organization aimed at reuniting refugees with their families through the use of a unique Internet search engine.

• Free of charge
• Easy to use
• Anonymous to all but family

Read more about them on their website: http://www.refunite.org/

Since February 2009 the Centre for Youth Development and Adult Education (CELA) in the Fizi Territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo, have been training Village Savings and Loan Associates.

Amka – Organization AVEC for micro saving and credit.

The organisation moved from Lugufu Camp in Tanzania when the refugee cam closed. The 24 staff run language programs, youth empowerment programs, adult education and vulnerable assistance programs.

CELA also aims to improve women’s social and economic conditions in Fizi’s rural communities. Currently there are five Village Savings and Loans Associates: Amka in Kasaka/Sebele, Umoga ni nguvu in Katanga, Matunda Bora in Mwamsombo, M’mwatelecha in Mwandiga, and Makene in Malala I.

Each of these communities has elected a group of 30 women to save money. Each of these groups governs itself and raises its own funds. The members meet on a regular basis to save money and buy shares. The share prices are set at a rate at which every member can afford to buy at least one share at each meeting.

The five CELA volunteers assist the groups in implementing the scheme and achieving their goals. CELA have also provided metal boxes with three keys to keep the money.

Other organisations such as CARE, Plan International or Oxfam have implemented schemes such as this with the aim of improving the lives of women within these communities by fighting poverty and promote women’s socio-economic development.

In addition to this the revenue generated will empower the women to become leaders, to provide choices and help them acquire civic, cultural, economic, political and social rights.

As the poorest members of the community women need resources to be able to make choices and fight oppression and exploitation.

In order to reach our goals, we are asking friends, partners and sponsors to financially support the VSL groups and raise their credit resources. You can also help to train the VSLA members about selection, planning and management of income generating activities and women’s leadership.

For further information, please contact M. Atuu Waonaje at atuuwaonaje@yahoo.com, +243 (0) 817 474 387.