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FROM THE FIELD

Awar Is Ready to Return Home
18 Jul 2008 05:29:00 GMT
 Source: Lutheran World Federation (LWF) - Switzerland (Department for World Service)
Fredrick Nzwili - LWI

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LWF Staff in the Kakuma Refugee Camp
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LWF Staff in the Kakuma Refugee Camp
Peter Stoll
A Major Transition at LWF-Run Refugee Camp in Kenya

KAKUMA, Northwest Kenya/GENEVA, 17 July 2008 July (LWI) - In the hot, remote and rugged areas of Lokichoggio in northwestern Kenya, where the Kakuma Refugee Camp is located, it is mixed feelings of joy and sadness, as Southern Sudanese who took refuge there prepare to leave a place that has been home to many, for more than a decade.

This is where Lutheran World Information (LWI) found Ms Kuei Awar preparing to return home after 16 years in exile.

"I think South Sudan is safe. I am ready to go," she told LWI, during a visit by some members of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Council, prior to their 25-30 June meeting in Arusha, Tanzania.

"I arrived here when I was 15 years old, as a single girl, but now I am returning as a mother of six children," she noted.

Like other refugees, Awar received education and professional skills, which, she said she capped "with another feather, a 'husband.'"

"I should now be settling back home but I have just been blessed with twins. I will wait a little longer, and leave as soon as I can carry the babies," she said at the camp's repatriation unit.

Comprehensive Peace Agreement

Three years ago, the announcement of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed between the former rebels, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and the Government of Sudan, was received as good news at Kakuma, located some 100 kilometers from Kenya's border with Sudan and Uganda and almost 1,000 kilometers from the capital Nairobi. Sudanese nationals, who had fled the impact of 21 years of civil war between the two adversaries started returning home in large numbers, either on their own or through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)-coordinated repatriation.

At the camp where the LWF Department of World Service (DWS) Kenya/Sudan program is the lead implementing agency for UNHCR and the Government of Kenya, officials say the organization facilitated the return of 4,686 refugees, while 14,475 left on their own in 2007.

In collaboration with its partners such as Action by Church Together (ACT) International, a global alliance of churches and related agencies, DWS has been providing the displaced Sudanese with water, shelter, food and non-food items, and put up schools to ensure continued education.

The Sudanese departure is expected to tilt the demography of the camp covering an area of some 25 square kilometers. On the Move, the 2007 LWF/DWS annual report for Kenya and Sudan states the camp had 60,842 refugees by the end of last year, a significant decrease from the 87,086 at the beginning of the year.

"Donors continued to reduce their levels of support for refugees, causing concern among the refugees that forced repatriation was being undertaken and their basic need and rights are not being met," the report stated.

"The Sudanese are the majority here. Now that they are going back, there is a big gap," said William Tembu, camp project coordinator. He noted the number of returnees had accelerated by early this year, with 8,500 people going back to South Sudan between March and May.

"They (locals) are complaining a bit about all the Sudanese leaving because of the fringe benefits associated with camp's location," said Philip Wijmans, DWS Kenya representative. He however noted, there would still be a core group of around 30,000 from other countries that will remain in the camp.

Preparation

George Omondi, the camp's youth and development officer, explained how the potential returnees are prepared for the situations back home.

"The Sudanese people are basically agriculturalists and livestock [owners]. We are talking about a people who have been away from that kind of lifestyle for 16 years. A child born in the camp is bound to find the lifestyle in Sudan quite different," he said.

Some of the children would be returning home without the slightest idea of the cultural practices of the people who would be receiving them, Omondi noted, as he explained the LWF's involvement in cultural orientation sessions that included display of traditional regalia.

"We asked the Sudanese elders in the community to share with them life stories about traditional heroes as a way of connecting them with the realities on the ground," he said.

Still, the camp is welcoming new residents, although in relatively fewer numbers. In 2007, nearly 2,000 mainly Somali refugees arrived from the Dadaab refugee camp, northeastern Kenya. Others came from Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and from Sudan's Darfur region.

Wijmans noted there were already about 14,000 Somali refugees in Kakuma, which would increase slightly with the arrival of the numbers from Dadaab.

Camp Conflicts

Turkana district is classified under the arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL), experiencing extremely high temperatures, erratic rainfall and extended drought seasons. Livestock production including camels, cattle and donkeys is the mainstay of the region's nomadic pastoralists. Since the 1992 arrival of the first 300 refugees in Kakuma, the host Turkana community found itself in conflict with the camp's residents on day to day relationships, and over scarce resources such as water, grazing pastures and basic health facilities. Community peace committees formed through LWF's intervention have helped to influence positive attitudes between refugees from eight nationalities each with their own religion, culture and traditions, and in their relationship to the host community.

"In the past, there were incidents of insecurity, but that has been stopped through the use of the peace committees," said area councilor, Patrick Losike. Still, he noted, the increasingly serious water shortages and limited or few health centers may disturb the harmony that has been achieved.

"The most pressing problem now is lack of water. There are two boreholes, a water mill and river borehole, but all are underutilized because of frequent break downs and lack of diesel. Water rationing is a norm here. This is unacceptable," stressed area chief, Cosmas Nakaya.

Responding to the local leaders' call for continued DWS assistance, LWF Treasurer Peter Stoll, a member of the LWF Council delegation to Kakuma said, "What brings us here is to make us understand the problems and the things that need to be done better. Therefore, working together, we can make peace," he said to the cheers of dancing women.

Amid the major transition for the different stakeholders in Kakuma, ordinary life continues - a football or basketball game by girls or boys, with a sizeable crowd of spectators cheering on. Also, LWF-supported income-generating activities for women and skills' training such as carpentry for men, open opportunities to supplement refugees' family income.


[ 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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