Drew's African Odyssey - Mwange Refugee Camp, Zambia

Today we went around and Sophie introduced me to our colleagues in the other NGOs working at the camp. There is the Zambian Red Cross, UNHCR, HODI (a Zambian NGO), World Vision, and a couple others. I musta met about 30 people today, so I'm still trying to get my head around all the names. Tommorrow will be my first day in the camp where we will attend a meeting for camp community leaders and I will have a tour of the camp and will meet some of our coaches.

I’m pretty nervous about the day, but im sure it will be very interesting for me. I’ve read and researched so much about the camp, it will be quite the experience actually seeing and working in it.

The camp was set up in 1999 and hosts some 28 000 Congolese refugees. The refugees receive monthly food rations from the UN and have started to subsist off local farming and stock raising. The camp is very well run and there are a lot of community clubs and societies in place. There has been no word as of late as to when the conflict in the DRC is ending and therefore we’re not sure if the refugees will ever return home. A lot of them are starting to integrate into Zambian society.

Right to Play has been in the camp since 2002 and we are planning to finish our program later on this year. The idea is that we will train enough coaches in the camp for them to be able to run the program themselves, though we will continue to supply them with sports equipment. From what I’ve heard, we have been very successful in the camp and Right to Play is well respected. The coaches we have trained are active in organizing intramurals, tournaments and games with the kids and we have incorporated our curriculum into the PE programs in the school.

Posted by: Drew Gardiner / 2:36 PM