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This blog will be an account my life working in a Refugee camp in Northern Zambia called Mwange. For the next year, I will be working for Right to Play, a sport and development organization based out of Toronto. What follows will be a life altering experience. Stay tuned....
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
July 26th
Up to my ears in work this week, which is meaning absolutely no time for socializing. I’ve been getting to know our new driver better and he seems like a really good guy. It was funny to learn that his father lectures at the University of Zambia as a Physical Education professor and has worked closely with Right to Play in Lusaka.
He has a wife and two children that he left in Lusaka, but he hopes that they can come to join us in Mporokoso and we will bring them back with us next time we go to the city. It seems like he misses them a lot, but he’s enjoying life in the bush. The whole refugee camp and living in a remote area is all new to him, so it’s taken some time to get used to it, but he’s met some friends and he’s learning a lot, so I’m comfortable that he’ll continue with us.
Today, I was at the UN offices for a meeting with all of the NGO heads in the camp. The boss at the UN decided to start these meetings so that NGOs could work more closely and hear what each other is doing. The best news that I found out is that the work on the road out to the camp has finally begun! That means the road will be a lot safer by the time the rainy season comes and we can make it to the camp a lot faster. Right now we’re taking an hour to drive 38 kms to the camp..!! We also discussed the issue of refugees returning back to the Congo. It seems there’s been an influx of returnees with the problem being that they are not telling the authorities that they are leaving. When you leave the camp, you have to hand in your ration card (the one that you present at food distribution), but what most of the refugees do is sell the card or give it to one of their family members before they go. In most of the cases someone from the family is sent ahead to find out if it is safe to return, or if the fighting is still going on in the area. We’ve got a number of reports that the conflict is over in the Congo, with just a small portion in the Northwest corner still at war. In that region, scores of Rwandan Hutu troops, who were kicked out of their country after the genocide, moved into the Congo to begin military operations for gold, diamonds and oil. The rebel groups were often supported by other regional governments vying for control of the area. The latest I heard is that Congo was scheduling elections for sometime early next year, and the issue will not be resolved until then.
He has a wife and two children that he left in Lusaka, but he hopes that they can come to join us in Mporokoso and we will bring them back with us next time we go to the city. It seems like he misses them a lot, but he’s enjoying life in the bush. The whole refugee camp and living in a remote area is all new to him, so it’s taken some time to get used to it, but he’s met some friends and he’s learning a lot, so I’m comfortable that he’ll continue with us.
Today, I was at the UN offices for a meeting with all of the NGO heads in the camp. The boss at the UN decided to start these meetings so that NGOs could work more closely and hear what each other is doing. The best news that I found out is that the work on the road out to the camp has finally begun! That means the road will be a lot safer by the time the rainy season comes and we can make it to the camp a lot faster. Right now we’re taking an hour to drive 38 kms to the camp..!! We also discussed the issue of refugees returning back to the Congo. It seems there’s been an influx of returnees with the problem being that they are not telling the authorities that they are leaving. When you leave the camp, you have to hand in your ration card (the one that you present at food distribution), but what most of the refugees do is sell the card or give it to one of their family members before they go. In most of the cases someone from the family is sent ahead to find out if it is safe to return, or if the fighting is still going on in the area. We’ve got a number of reports that the conflict is over in the Congo, with just a small portion in the Northwest corner still at war. In that region, scores of Rwandan Hutu troops, who were kicked out of their country after the genocide, moved into the Congo to begin military operations for gold, diamonds and oil. The rebel groups were often supported by other regional governments vying for control of the area. The latest I heard is that Congo was scheduling elections for sometime early next year, and the issue will not be resolved until then.
