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FROM THE FIELD

SUDAN: Breaking down language barriers for refugees
12 Jun 2009 12:31:00 GMT
 Source: MAG (Mines Advisory Group)
Website: Website: http://www.maginternational.org

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Asiki (far right) with MAG Sudan staff, giving Mine Risk Education to refugees in Lasu Payam.
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Asiki (far right) with MAG Sudan staff, giving Mine Risk Education to refugees in Lasu Payam.
MAG Sudan

Background

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In Lasu Payam, about 32 kilometres southwest of Yei town, a large refugee camp has been steadily growing since January.

This camp is impressive: not only because it already houses around 8,000 refugees and counting, but because it is relatively spacious and organised - and the refugees are busy getting on with cultivating their land and making the most of the situation in which they find themselves.

MAG has been visiting this camp to provide Mine Risk Education (MRE) to the refugees in coordination with the United Nations' Refugee Agency, UNHCR.

Displaced from their country of origin, refugees are particularly vulnerable to landmines and unexploded ordnance. They are in an unfamiliar environment and may have to walk in areas which, unbeknown to them, are contaminated with dangerous remnants of conflict.

Getting safety messages to them is vital therefore, ensuring they understand the different threats and what they can do to keep themselves and their families safe.

MAG's Community Liaison/Mine Risk Education teams in the country can speak around 15 different languages between them, but these are all local languages to Sudan.

So, to avoid the potential difficulties of language barriers, when MAG's teams began work in Lasu they found a translator recommended by UNHCR.

Thirty-year-old Asiki speaks French, English, Juba Arabic and Ligala, and has been working with MAG for several weeks, helping to deliver the important messages encouraging safe behaviour the CL/MRE teams deliver.

Asiki is a refugee himself, arriving in Lasu in January from Aba in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a town 18km across the border from Sudan, where he was a teacher in the local school.

Late last year, there were reports of violence near Aba, allegedly by the Lord's Resistance Army, an armed militia from Uganda which operates in the border regions of Uganda, Sudan and D.R. Congo.

After the third incident had been reported in his town, that of the killing of the pastor, Asiki and his family fled. They left with nothing other than what they could carry, though with a child of two and a five-month-old baby not much else could be carried.

Walking for two days, they eventually made their way over the border and initially stopped in Libogo, and then as the camp at Lasu started to be formed they relocated there.

When they arrived there were not many people and no resources for them. Now. though. there are thousands of people, and a number of items have been given to all the camp members so that they can set up a home of sorts.

Asiki, not one to sit around, started teaching English and French in the makeshift school and when MAG requested the assistance of a translator UNHCR recommended his services.

The delivery of MRE in camps like these, similar to delivery to returnees in way stations [see: Preparing a safe way home], is intense, as the team is trying to capture a large number of people in a short space of time.

The team has been carrying out up to five MRE sessions a day and Asiki says he has learnt much from being the translator. He also thinks that, if, when they return home there are explosive remnants of conflict present, then he will be able to advocate safe behaviour in dealing with these items.

"The message and service MAG provides to people in the camp is important," said Asiki. "I will continue assisting the team for as long as it takes to ensure all refugees that arrive at Lasu have the opportunity to hear and understand the vital messages of Mine Risk Education."

For more information on MAG's Sudan programme please visit www.maginternational.org/sudan


[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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Last updated:Fri Jun 12 12:36:54 2009