Stories from the Field

By Dana Binnendijk, Field Coordinator

The heat hits you hard upon arrival in Ghana. At the Buduburam refugee camp, there is little relief besides the shade of the trees or the sporadic breeze if it has just rained. The sun beating down on your back during the day is not relieved in the evening, since the humidity continues to overwhelm the small stuffy rooms in the tiny UNHCR and refugee-built houses. Even with a fan beating directly on your face through a malaria net all night, you will undoubtedly sweat through your sheets. And this is the rainy season - the coolest season of the year.

Those living in the camp wake up with the sun in the morning to start their days. The sound of pots and pans banging starts around 5am. If that doesn't wake you up, the roosters will. All of the activity is so close that it sounds as though everyone is actually in your bedroom. But you get used to it. After a few days, waking up to the smell of burning charcoal and fire is actually quite comforting despite the early hour. When I'm walking through the dirt streets later in the day, carefully avoiding trash or rivers of waste, I try to ignore the stench and summon up the comforting smells of the camp, such as the cooking of kasava or fresh bread.


The primarily Liberian settlement camp of Buduburam is a powerful example of how resilient people can be despite painful backgrounds and lack of resources. Everyone in the camp has lost a loved one – whether it is family, friends, or both - during the thirteen years of two consecutive violent civil wars in Liberia that finally ended in 2003. Small businesses have sprouted up all over camp, and it is not hard to find a place to buy a relatively healthy breakfast of egg and bread or to find a tailor to make Liberian-style clothing for men and women. The owners of these businesses hardly ever take a rest, and seem to work at least 15-hour days only to get up the next day to work again.


The Ghanaians are ready to see the camp closed. Protests in March were deemed illegal by the Ghanaian government and have lead to a serious increase in tensions between the Ghanaians and the Liberians in the camp. Hundreds of women and children had gathered and asked for $1,000 per refugee from UNHCR to go back to Liberia or to be relocated to the United States. Neither demand was realistic as the United States is no longer accepting refugees from the camp and the UNHCR does not have the funds to give such sums of money to the 42,000 slated for repatriation. During this contentious period, there were reports of protesting women running around naked – apparently untrue according to volunteers who were in Buduburam during this period. It was also reported that arrests of the protesters led to severe human rights violations such as beatings and rape of the women. It's hard to sort fact from fiction in such mixed and confused reports, but there was undoubtedly violence during March and April.

Rumors are now circulating that the camp will be broken up into different communities for 'better monitoring', as has been reported in newspapers over the past couple of months. No one knows when exactly this will take place, but one can understand why Ghanaians think it is time for the camp to close. It has been almost five years since the war ended in Liberia and Ghana, itself a not a rich country, has tried to be generous. But dividing people in the camp seems to be a drastic move that will take extra resources and potentially split up friends and family. It will not necessarily accomplish an earlier departure. The Liberians I have spoken to already want to go home. The majority has plans to leave in the next month or two, and people are repatriating at a record rate. It is hard to understand what the splitting up of the camp would accomplish except to create more resentment and raise tensions still further. Since the details of these potential plans were never publicly stated, it is unclear how the change in the Interior Minister of Ghana will affect decisions made about refugee repatriation.

Certainly, fears mix with anticipation when refugees look toward their journey back to Liberia. The general fear people have about going back has to do with finding houses, finishing their education, getting jobs, and keeping family together. Those who have either lived all their lives on camp since 1990 and/or whose families and friends were killed during the war are uncertain about their futures. Without connections, will they be able to find homes when they go back to Liberia? If they have started businesses, will they be able to set up shop in their village or in Monrovia? Will those who were unable to finish high school be able to find a job or go back to college even though they have little to no money? Another concern is the overcrowding of Monrovia, since it is a city already with a large population that could be overwhelmed with the number of incoming refugees.

It is not hard to see both sides of the issue. From the outside, it seems that the majority of Liberians and Ghanaians want the same thing - a return to Liberia. Refugees want to return to a place where they can legally find work and create new lives for themselves, while Ghanaians want to have their land back. So why the struggle?

A severe lack of resources reinforces underlying fears among Liberians. For some, this fear translated into frustration with lack of help and a sense of abandonment, despite all the previous aid from Ghanaians and the international community. Aid has tapered off as early as 2000, and even more so since the end of the war in Liberia in 2003. The protesters captured these feelings and put them into action, but unfortunately this only increased tensions between the two parties.

It is true that there is little help in the repatriation process. Each refugee receives a small sum of 100 USD from UNHCR upon return to Liberia, which does not even cover the cost of transporting themselves or their belongings. After that, everyone has to make their way on their own, hopefully with some help from friends and family in Liberia. It's hard to blame any of the parties involved since it seems to come down to the fact that no one has the money to support the return of 42,000 refugees. Without the projects that several small NGOs are running, some refugees would return with no plans, no money, and no support mechanisms. For some, it must feel like walking straight off a cliff with their eyes closed.

We're Back!

Dear friends and supporters of The Niapele Project,

After a month long stay in the Buduburam settlement, Celina and Penelope have returned to Los Angeles and Paris, respectively, and are now working on exciting new stages for our initiatives - stay tuned to hear more about how The Niapele Project is going to assist its partner organizations in their transition back to Liberia in the coming months!

Here are some multimedia treats from the April trip - enjoy!

The Niapele Team

School Nutrition with the Carolyn A. Miller School

Veronica and Dorris, preparing the bean soup

Kids at CAMES, enjoying their daily meal

ARCH

Jessica Leombruno's farewell party at ARCH

Emma, a new arrival at ARCH



The Harmony Center

Princess

Pandora, teaching

Slices of life at Buduburam


UNHCR meeting on April 16th

Making palm butter in cans

Telling you the Facts - Giving a Voice to the Voiceless

Here is a phone interview with a refugee spokesperson for the women's movement, Cecelia Garlo - thanks tons to White Tara Productions who put this together in no time at all.

Don't forget to sign the online petition calling for the safeguarding of the rights of refugees in Ghana!

Stories from the Field - exposing the truth

We, at The Niapele Project, are completely appalled by the lack of journalistic (dare we say "human"?) integrity displayed in the media coverage of the current situation in the Buduburam refugee settlement.

Here is the latest update from Jessica Leombruno, who managed to get her hands on official documents released by the UNHCR as well as the Ghanaian Ministry of Interior last week, prior to the dramatic events of March 17th.

For a bit of context, they were released on the day that the 20 Liberian representatives went to Accra. That day, they met with a UNHCR representative (I believe the same one that is mentioned in the documents), and Ghanain authorites - Ministry of Interior and police chief, I believe. MD [a Liberian refugee who runs an NGO that works to improve the livelihoods of Ghanaian farmers,ndlr] was one of the 20 representatives. He told me that when they arrived, they were searched at gun point (while the press was made to stay outside, of course) and there were armed guards present during the meeting as well. While no compromise was actually reached, MD was encouraged by their response to integration into Ghana. He said that in response to their concerns about integration, the Ghanaian representatives adamently agreed that integration was not a possibility and that they had no interest in integrating the Liberian population either.
The representatives returned to camp feeling that they had made a significant advancement - at least integration was off the table. Upon returning to the camp though, the following press releases/documents were circulating - condeming the refugees for thier unwillingness to integrate. What an obvious difference between what people are willing to say when there is no one there (besides refugees) to substaniate what they are saying and what they release publicly

Apologies for the poor quality of the documents below - but you can click on the images for a larger view:




Please share these stories - post them on Facebook, on your blog, email your friends....

Hundreds of women and children are facing an immediate threat of unjust deportation - we need your help to make sure that the truth is exposed, and that the rights of refugees are being safeguarded.

Stay tuned for more information....

Stories from the Field

An update from Jessica on the current situation in the Buduburam refugee settlement -
Stay tuned for regular updates!

At about 4am today, the Ghanaian police showed up to camp armed with machine guns and tear gas - luckily they never used either, but still - I consider it to be unnecessary force... They arrested a couple hundred of the women. No one knows exactly how many, but I have heard from several different people (including Mark [ARCH staff member, ndlr] who was there when it happened) that there were 5 buses (big buses, not the tro tro size) and 2 trucks that they filled with women. They went along willingly and the police even had to refuse women from getting arrested (they were all volunteering to go ! ) Apparently 8 women got minor injuries - there is conflicting information over how it happened. Some people are saying it was the confusion and people were moving around too quickly, but Mark told me that one of the officers used a beat stick on one of the women. I have even heard that one woman gave birth on the way to the police station!

Overall things remained calm during the ordeal and no real violence broke out, which I am very shocked about. But after they left with the women [one of which is Doris, the head cook at the School Feeding Program] hundreds of additional women went to the field. I went there around 10 this morning and there must have been at least 600 or 700 people there. The Ministry of Interior is saying that when the numbers of women decrease a bit, they wil be back to arrest more of them. They are also threatening to prosecute all arrested women and deport them back to Liberia as criminals.

As you can imagine, tensions on camp are a bit high at the moment and all possibility of normal work is pretty much stopped. Even the markets were empty today cause many of the market women were arrested.

Stories from the Field

Today is International Women's Day, and, coincidentally, we have the perfect story to share with you to mark the occasion.

This is our first "Stories from the Field" feature - we hope to shed light on the reality of life as a refugee through these occasional stories.


By Jessica Leombruno, Field Coordinator, The Niapele Project

Hundreds of women are staging a peaceful sit-in on the roadside soccer field of Buduburam refugee camp. With each day, the women's movement is growing. What started as five women facing the road with illegible signs, has grown to a force of hundreds of woman and children. They sit outside all day under the hot Ghanaian sun, sleep outside with the relentless mosquitos and dance through thunder storms.

The women are trying to draw the attention of the world community, or at the very least, the attention of the UNHCR. They are requesting that each repatriated refugee be given $1000 to return home with. Their hope is that this money will be enough to start a new life in Liberia - to buy a house, food, water, pay school fees, perhaps even start a small business. During other rounds of repatriation the UNHCR had been giving each returning refugee a laughable sum - $5, a bag of rice, a gallon of oil, and a blanket. Not surprisingly, many of those people quickly ended up in Liberian IDP settlements. After all, how can anyone expect a refugee to return to a war afflicted country after 5, 10, or 15 years with $5, little or no family, no place to call home, and no one to turn to for support? Despite this, I seriously doubt the women will be able to achieve their demands. By many estimates, there are still 35,000 Liberian refugees at Buduburam. Giving each individual amounts to $35,000,000. Given UNHCR's relative disinterest in Buduburam in recent years, there is little evidence to indicate that they would even consider meeting the demands of the women.

Nevertheless, the UNHCR is aware of the women's protest and have taken steps to respond. A representative visited the camp recently, but was reported to have not taken the protest seriously. He sited the fact that the schools were still in session, the markets were running, and life on camp was pretty much business as usual. In turn, the women responded by asking every school on camp to close, and asking the markets to close by noon each day. I was shocked to see that these changes took place rather quickly. Many people foresee the protests lasting through the end of the month at the very least. Considering the momentum the movement gains each day, I would not be surprised in the slightest.