Meheba

I wrote this article for MCC donor, but I thought I would post it here too becuase I think it paints a clear picture of my experience there. Enjoy!

My Day at Meheba Refugee Settlement

By Rachel Krueger

Although my time was short and my journey was long, it was well worth the effort to have the opportunity to part-take in the last leg of the blanket and school kit’s arrival to the Meheba Refugee Settlement. I took with me a lasting memory of the people, their stories, and Meheba’s outstanding beauty, but a piece of my heart has remained in underneath the glimmering canopy trees forever.

                                               

I drove into the camp with many preconceived notions about what a Refugee Settlement might look like, but all of these were quickly shattered upon arrival. One being that Meheba is actually the largest refugee settlement’s in the continent of Africa with thousands of refugees settling from Angola, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Somali and Sudan, covering more than 72 km2.  I learned that incoming refugees are given plots of land to develop their lives, find jobs and raise a family under the provision of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Unlike many temporary refugee camps, this settlement offers a safe solution for people to seek permanent asylum and learn skills of self-sustainability.

However, this is not to say that the place is glamorous by any means. From the comments made by my colleagues and from my own observations, there is still a striking amount of poverty despite the settlement’s attempts to provide aid. Varied options for employment are scarce, and opportunities for leaving the camp are limited. Although these refugees are safe from war, political upheaval and other forms of violence, within its walls lies people with many unmet needs.

With more than 15,000 inhabitants and only 100 blankets to distribute, I quickly realized that my job here would become a lot more difficult than I had originally imagined. The goal of this trip was to target the most vulnerable, so we were thankful for the on-the-ground NGO Refugee Alliance, with whom we worked in collaboration with throughout the day. From their counsel, we were sent to section 44: Center of the Aged and Disabled, who we were told to be most deserving of our support. We met with Antoni Kasoma, the chairperson and supervisor of this plot of land who looks after the elderly. He emphasized that these residents have been branded as the “rejects” of society due to associations with witchcraft or have become burdens to family members in their sickness. My heart went out to a woman named Litwayi Likumbu, who had been categorized as evil in her old age and had been left to care for herself after being abandoned by her children. She was unable to walk, but met us at the door of her small home to collect her blanket. Although she could not say much, her silent beauty and eyes filled with stories were staggering.

However painful it was to drive away without more to give, I was assured that these blankets were given to those in desperate need. We were told that every piece of this delivery – the plastic packaging, the cardboard and the blanket itself - will be used to create a more comfortable place to sleep for those who do not have anything but a hard cement floor. With this, I am reminded of how resourceful people can be in the midst of poverty, and the ways we take for granted the most basic materials.

In our stop at the UNHCR orphanage within the camp, we talked with a caregiver about the ways her children can benefit from our resources. She explained that most children who arrive at the orphanage have fled from violence within the home. However, the school kits and blankets that were being provided for them offered a first step to the building of peace and stability, and an opportunity to break this cycle of violence with tools for education.  One girl  named Patricia Mukendi arrived at the orphanage after her father had been put in jail for beating his wife with an axe. As her mom rests and recovers in the hospital, she seeks refuge and does not forget to smile in the process, proudly displaying her new school kit.

  

At Meheba Basic School, I sat among the orphaned students who briefly went around the circle to explain to me what the need is for these school kits. I was surprised to find that every student had parents that had either passed away, or have been too sick to provide financial support for their education. One boy mentioned to me that for the past year he had been completing all of his subjects in one notebook. With more books to write in, he will now able to complete his homework while his teachers mark other subjects over night. It is in these stories that the boxes of school kits placed in the center of our circle sprang to life. They were no longer just flimsy notepads or meaningless pencils, but tools to help motivate children to discover their own potential. I thought back to my time in Akron, Pennsylvania when the MCC SALTers spent a night packaging school kits together. At the time I was skeptical of the ways a simple bag of supplies could be life changing for someone half way across the world. Luckily, these boxes of school kits followed me to Zambia and proved me wrong.

 If there was one thing I have learned about development on this trip is that every individual effort we make contributes to a larger whole. Like the different fabrics integrated into each MCC quilt, we all have a valuable piece in order to produce that final product. Without the blanket makers we would not have a blanket to give, without a truck driver we would not make it to this settlement, and without Refugee Alliance’s on-the-ground knowledge we would not have been able to distribute to those in need. Development relies on a global community working across borders towards a common goal. In our journey, we delivered blankets that were made by one Zambian on her own initiative. Although she did not have a team behind her like the MCC volunteers, she became a symbol for me as a marking of successful development. When we take advantage of our own skills, however small, I believe that it can create lasting fruits that will be reflected upon the grateful faces I saw throughout the entire day. In this, we begin to see our efforts pay off in a way we could never have imagined