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Deaf refugees

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Last night in rwanda

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Day 11

Akagera Safari Day

We started our safari day at 7am. During breakfast a monkey came out and tried to steal some sugar on the patio, the workers shooed him away. The sunrise was beautiful. The hotel seems to have many mother monkeys right now, I saw three hanging out with each other and their babies.

There are 525 different species of birds in Akagera, and it definitely sounds like it. You can hear them everywhere.

I took inventory of all the animals I saw on the safari tour.

Hippos, many of them. This is hippo kingdom for sure.

Baboons. They’re huge and scary, our hotel staff told us that baboons sometimes open the tents at night looking for food. That terrified me.

Waterbuck. I like these because they have long hair around their neck and awesome ears.

Common Impala. These are striking, they have a peachy color to them.

Warthogs. Warthogs are very funky looking.

2 Cape Elands.

A herd of water buffalo, but I also saw one water buffalo hanging out with a warthog under a tree.

3 fish eagles. They look like bald eagles but they have more white on them.

Thousands of zebras (probably more like 70).

Topi, they have unusually dark legs.

A herd of elephants.

1 Tanzania. You could see it across the border.

1 crested crane, my favorite.

1 hippo walking out of the water

lots of storks

vultures

a thousand stupid tsetse flies, the absolute worst.

This park is abundant in different kinds of life. The plants were scrub like. The park has savannah, wetlands, and grasslands. The environment changes throughout the entire park. It was really wonderful.

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UNHCR Meeting

UNHCR Briefing Meeting

I know this is a little lengthy, but it’s filled with information about the camps as well as some background information for those of you who are interested.

Brian presented the representative, Jakob, with last years map. He printed different large scale map of representing different infrastructural components. He was very appreciative of the detailed maps and thinks they will be of great use.

Jakob informed us that qualitative articles with information from the economic survey questions we will be asking will be extremely beneficial. Narrative reporting with data is needed, but he asked us not to do what has already been done, which makes sense.

After, he basically briefed us on the situation in the camps. It is crucial to give the refugees the right to work, and make sure they are not discriminated against because of their status. Also, the UNHCR is working to hopefully immerse the refugees into Rwanda with protected, unconditional legal citizen status. At that point, they would no longer be considered refugees.

I am not sure if Jakob said they have a bank account in which they can build up their credit history, but I know it is the goal. Right now, the Kigeme refugees have been receiving cash for a year now instead of handouts which has proven to be more empowering for the refugees. The cash is supposed to be used for food, but they tend to trade and use it for other purposes as well.

Jakob explained the economics of the situation. He compared “pure communism’ as the initial economic method, a planned economy. He notes this is problematic because it in a way, keeps people dependent which is not the desired result. Handing out food is disempowering for the refugees; maybe like food stamps are in the U.S. Now, they are trying to transform the economic systems to give the refugees more power and mobility. One important thing to remember is particular economies work better in some places than others.

Right now, they are focusing mostly on basic commodities like blankets, food, shelter, etc. They do not yet have electricity installed, and the UNHCR did not express much concern for implementing it so far. In addition to business and food, if they use a cash system instead of vouches, they can use it build their own houses, which is what they are culturally used to doing. Right now, the refugees also employ the right to free universal healthcare, which is something we don’t have in the U.S. Jakob and his colleagues are working towards the inclusion of refugees into as many systems as possible in the Rwandan government. One of the challenges of the UNHCR is negotiating with the Rwandan government; they have to show the government how the integration of refugees will be beneficial.

As of right now, there are three ways in which the refugees can rid of their status as refugees; dual citizenship, volunteerily returning to country of origin, or citizenship in a 3rd country mostly in the western countries. Returning to their country of origin is increasingly not on option, especially for the Congolese.

One of my peers asked how well the Rwandans are receiving the refugees. Jakob explained, quite well actually. Before the 1920s when the colonial powers drew the lines they separated people nationally. Culturally, ethnically, historically, linguistically, the refugees are Rwandan.  Rwanda gave land out for the refugees as an empathic notion, which is a good thing because it’s one less struggle for the refugees and the UNHCR. In contrast, Somalian refugees in Kenya are oftentimes viewed as terrorists; Jakob explained that of course, the terrorist acts in Kenya are committed by Somalians, but that by no means means that the Somalian refugees are terrorists. Thus, the relationship Rwanda has with the refugees is good and much more inviting. In addition, in 1997, the Congo suffered a small genocide in which produced refugees and Rwanda accepted 100% of them as citizens. Jakob suggested it was maybe because they felt guilty.

Discussions of sustainability rose as well; the camps are revered as the unfortunate because they do not preserve the dignity of the refugees. They are not a long term solution, but rather a cheap one. He went as far as to describe them as “open prisons.” They can opt to leave, but they usually don’t because then they will not receive assistantship. Every once in while, they try for Kigali or a city to try and make it, but it is hard and they sometimes have to go back to UNHCR to ask for aid.

After our meeting with Jakob, we had another meeting arranged to meet the head of the UNHCR. He explained that refugees in Rwanda are half Congolese and half are Burundian. He himself, was a refugee from Afghanistan as he was moved to Switzerland during the cold war time period.

He said that the U.S. has one of the best track records for repatriation of refugees into society, that our method is one of the most enabling. The U.S. has promised to take 20,000 refugees in from Rwanda in the next year, but they are fearful that it may not happen with the new leadership. If this happens, they will have an easier time convincing the Rwandan government to give them more land. One of the issue is that the amount of land issued for refugees does not ensure a kind livelihood, it’s not habitable. If Rwanda was a bigger country, this would not be such a conflict, but it is tiny. Again, it is more empowering for the refugees if they can more room to move in.

The head, his name is Sabar Azam, is big on sustainability and SDGs. The MDG goals failed because 500-600 million people (refugees) are unspoken for. He is trying to do two things mainly; transform tents and crummy buildings to permanent residences for the refugees and ensure there is room for more refugees as the situation in the Congo is not improving. Right now, they have about 60,000 people at their camp in Mahama; they are giving a worst case scenario number 500,000 people. Therefore, they want us not only to map the camp, but to help give them an idea of where expansion is possible.

He explained that people that incite conflict within the camp are talked to, and if their behavior does not change, they are not welcome. They also discussed an absolute zero tolerance for Gender Based Violence. These are regulated by the government within the camps. He also discussed the funding of scholarships for students, and the investment towards education in the camps.