Gihembe refugee camp is located in Byumba town, Kageyo
Sector of Gicumbi District in Northern Province, 60 km north from Kigali City.
This camp was established in December 1997 to host Congolese refugees who fled
conflicts in the Eastern DRC and initially hosted at Mudende camp in Rubavu
District.
Following attacks by armed groups at Mudende camp, the
Government of Rwanda and UNHCR decided to move refugees far from the border,
then Gihembe camp was established to accommodate survivors of those attacks
that had caused several causalities to some of these refugees. The Gihembe
Refugee Camp has more than 14,000 Congolese refugees.
Gihembe refugee camp landscape. |
On Monday August 17, 2015 During GYC's visit to the camp we
discussed human rights with 20 youth from the camp. We learned that many human
rights are not met or are partially met at the camp. For example, there is
inadequate education at the camp. Students can only attend up to Senior Three.
Youth from the camp who graduated from university had tried to overcome this
challenge. They started a school in the camp called Hope School to teach
student the advanced levels, but the challenge they are still facing is that
this school is not recognized by the Rwandan government so the students are not
allowed to do the national exams in the camp. Instead, refugee students go to
schools around the camp to do national exams. The teachers at the camp are
volunteers, and are not paid. Therefore the school in the camp is not well
equipped for proper education. This lack of a complete education for the
refugees limits their opportunities of employment, and thus the chance to
integrate into Rwandan society. In addition, we compared the same human rights
that the refugees talked about to those rights in Rwanda and in the USA. It was
interesting to learn that the rights we discussed were placed in the same
categories (met, partially met, and not met) by the Rwandans and Americans.
Rights discussion. |
However, the refugees placed their rights in either partially met or not met.
Discussing and comparing human rights really opened my eyes to what life is
like for the refugees, and how differently we all live.
After discussing human rights, the refugees took us on a
tour of the health and education areas of the camp. This allowed us to
physically see the lack of human rights they had, especially after discussing
with them that education and health were two rights that were not fully met at
the camp. Seeing these facilities was evidence of this. The health clinic did
not seem very clean, and looked cramped. Additionally, it was definitely not
large enough for the 14,000 inhabitants of the camp. Going to the camp and
meeting with the refugee youth was a really valuable experienced that allowed
me to better understand the importance of human rights for every human being.
Furthermore, the Turikumwe participants together with youth
from the camp had the opportunity to meet with the staff from UNHCR.
The meeting with the staff from UNHCR. |
UNHCR,
Explained firstly all about the camp. They said that they are in partnership
with some local and international NGOs, such as ADRA, Plan International and
American Refugee Committee, who help in
different domains like education and health care. They explained a little bit
about the new policy of UNHCR in the camp of giving money instead of food to
refugees. They proclaimed that this new policy is better than the previous one.
Participant and youth from the camp had the opportunity to ask questions to
UNHCR. A frequently asked questions was "why is there only one doctor for
the whole population of the camp?" UNHCR explained that life in refugee
camps is hard, and this is the sad reality. If UNHCR had more funding they
could possibly address some of these problems.
In conclusion, our visit to Gihembe Refugee Camp was
beneficial to our overall study of human rights. It added to the varied groups
of people we visited (such as the Batwa community and the Kiziba camp youth) in
comparing and examine human rights.
Participants played with kids before leaving the camp. |
#Sefie team foto. |
It is not how much we participated, but how much we felt, that will make us to advocate for the refugees.--Local Participant.