JUBILEE PARTNERS REPORT December 2007 Now we have come to your country as refugees. What do you think of us? This was Minani Michel s question after recounting the story of his 35-year journey from Burundi to the United States. For a man who has been a refugee since 1972, in three different countries, this is a very serious question. He is asking, Am I welcome here? Will this be home for my family? As we at Jubilee have hosted several Burundi families over the last two years, we have been astounded to learn that some of them have lived in refugee camps longer than many of our volunteers have been alive! Michel s family, who are Hutu, left Burundi for the Congo when he was two years old. We went to Ntunda on the other side of the border in 1972. We spent four years in the camp, Sange. It was still very close to Burundi and the political situation was very tense. Tutsis were coming to threaten people in the camp. So UNHCR moved the whole camp to Katanga, farther into the Congo. In Katanga, we lived as refugees supported by UNHCR. Katanga was a village, and there was a camp of about 4,000 Burundians there. You could say life was good. It was easy enough for children to study then. There were micro-development and training projects, humanitarian aid, many churches, sports, hospitals and health care. I noticed that the government set aside part of the land for a refugee cemetery. We were able to keep our cultural practices alive. We lived well with the local Babembe tribe. We were free to go anywhere outside the camp we wished. The UNHCR bought land in the area and distributed it, giving each family 100x100 meters. We cultivated cassava and peanuts, to eat and to sell. We had a good diet. We lived well there, without problems, for 20 years, from 1976-1996. LEFT: Minani Michel at right, enjoys a beautiful Thanksgiving day at Jubilee with family and friends. Son, Cryspin, 5, wife Esther, and volunteer Nariel Davis holding son Clement, 3.
We had to leave Katanga in November of 1996 when the war ignited in the Congo. There were guns and bombing. I witnessed many awful and very serious things on the journey from Katanga to Tanzania. Everybody was fighting each other. We fled to the forest and were there for two weeks. A bomb even hit where we were and we had to move immediately. It was frightening and people were dying. It was terrible there in the forest, with famine, mosquitoes, illness, constantly being on the run. There was a lot of death. After two weeks we came to Lake Tanganyika. We thought We will die now. All is finished. because we couldn t cross. We got down on our knees and began to pray for the last time. By chance a big boat came from Tanzania. We had no money for passage but we gave them some nice fabric and new clothing, so they took us on the boat. We arrived in Tanzania November 18, 1996. It was very expensive to live in Tanzania. We took everything we had and went to live in the camp Muyovosi. It was forbidden to leave the camp. There were 35,000 Burundians there; nearby was Tabila with 45,000. We received ration cards there and had only to eat what they gave us. It was very difficult. On delivery day when food was distributed, it was not sufficient corn, split peas, cooking oil, and a cup of salt for four people for two weeks. Healthcare was very limited; it wasn t enough, although there was a pharmacy. The churches and non-profit organizations were there. You could do Burundi sports and our culture was respected. There were schools, but no teaching materials. After secondary school there were almost no opportunities for education. At the hospital in the camp there was a doctor I knew who has since died. Through him I was able to study in a paramedical course for two years. So I got a job at Muyovosi hospital for which I was thankful. But I made only 18,000 shillings a month which was not sufficient; I could not even buy with this a pair of pants which cost 20,000 shillings. ABOVE: Everybody needs a big sister! Silver Paw and Clement settle in for Sunday evening worship. LEFT: Amra Bilakovic and Thi Le (who both lived at our Welcome Center in 1998) come join us every year for our joyous Thanksgiving homecoming! Half the fun is washing dishes for 150 people. Partner Al Lawler is always ready to lend a hand. PAGE TWO
We were at Muyovosi for ten or eleven years. Fortunately the governments of the U.S. and Tanzania together with the UNHCR decided to bring the refugees who had been there for a very long time to America. An American came with a delegation and chose the refugees from way back from 1972 to bring to the U.S. They chose us by the numbers on our ration cards.we looked on the board hoping to find this number. I still don t know if people were selected by chance. Once your number appeared you still had to pass the interview. In the interview, we told our stories. The main question is, Why are you a refugee? How did you leave Burundi? What were you running from? Following the interview, some were accepted, and some were turned away. We went to the transit camp in Kibondo, Tanzania for two months, then flew to Nairobi, then London, then New York, then Atlanta. We spent one day in Atlanta, then came to Jubilee, which I like to call the cradle of English. We were told that Jubilee was a place where we would learn English and cultural information, but now I see that Jubilee is a mother, because the mother teaches the child her language and her ways. There are still many, many in the camp who have no hope of return to Burundi, like my sister and brother-in-law. Yes, it s easy to cross the border back into Burundi. If you had no problems in the war, you can return. If your family is in government, you can return. But for those of us who left in 1972, there is nothing there. They broadcast messages to us on the radio: Why would you come back? You re not a part of Burundi anymore. You are nothing. If people go back, they are not welcome, and some have been killed. They say, Who told you to come back.you re just causing problems. The government has a proverb: If you leave as a chicken and go to the forest and come back, you re not a chicken anymore, you re a pig. We have lost our identity. TOP LEFT: Palah Pwae (left) and Sugi (right) are good buddies. Sugi (from Chad) really helps out at the Welcome Center. He translates to French for cultural and practical classes for the Burundis (which Michel then translates to Kirundi!) He s been the computer skills tutor with the Burundi men at our local adult learning center. And all the kids from every country love him. (Notice Palah Pwae s beautiful tunic handwoven in the Karen style.) ABOVE: Our soccer field has been getting daily use with 15 teenagers on site (and lots of other active folks!)
My parents are dead, not from war, but from illness, Michel says with great emotion. My father was not afraid to die, but he hoped not to die as a refugee, and he did. More and more, refugees who come through Jubilee are telling stories like this: of camps where it is forbidden to leave the confines of the camp, where opportunities for work are extremely limited, and where people live for years, or even decades, completely dependent on external aid. Sometimes it starts to feel to us like the normal refugee experience, although it denies several human rights found in the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Children are born and spend their whole lives in these camps, with no hope of return to the home country or integration into the local host country. The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants calls this refugee warehousing and estimates that some 8 million of the nearly 17 million refugees worldwide live in these protracted situations. These closed camps create conditions where apathy, dependency, despair, and abuse are common. They can also be recruiting grounds for guerilla forces. Only the lucky few will be resettled to third countries such as the United States. (For more information, go to www.refugees.org) The Karen families from Burma, whom we are delighted to be hosting, also come from a warehouse camp. Mae La is one of nine long-term encampments along the border between Burma and Thailand. 50,000 live in Mae La alone, which is experiencing increased pressure every day with new arrivals fleeing the current wave of repressive violence in Burma. The camp is surrounded by barbed wire, and refugees are not permitted to leave. TOP LEFT: Our fantastic fall volunteer group helps make it all possible: Aiad, Emily, Abi, Lisa, Steph, Nariel, Katie, Bryson, and Ben. ABOVE: Photos showing conditions in the cramped Mae La camp on the Burma-Thai border. Houses are made of bamboo with thatched mud and leaf roofs, and may house up to three families. The Mae La camp is populated mostly by ethnic Karen. Photos of Mae La courtesy of the Border Green Energy Team (www.bget.org) PAGE FOUR
Cray Kyi and his family came to Jubilee after ten years in the camp. Like other refugees from Burma, they fled the systematic persecution of villagers by the military, including forced labor, murder, and destruction of crops. For years Cray Kyi and the older children would sleep in the forest in Burma to avoid the military. Whenever they heard the dogs barking, they would run to the forest. The women and younger children stayed behind in the village. Finally the situation became so unlivable that ten years ago they crossed the border into Thailand and entered the camp. It is our joy to see Cray Kyi living in freedom. Every Tuesday afternoon refugees are invited to join in a community work time in the garden. Not since the Vietnamese refugees came through Jubilee in the 90s have we had someone here so expert at working with plants and with such obvious joy at being in contact with the soil. The pitchfork is like an extension of his arm! Cray Kyi has also handcrafted an intricate loom while at Jubilee, using a machete to carve the wooden pieces. Over and over, their teachers have commented on what keen students the Karen are, using all the English they know. As Christians, we know that ultimately our home is in the heart of God. Yet we are all looking for a sense of home during our journey on this Earth as well. At Jubilee on any given day, there are some who have left war and violence to come here. Others have left wealth, or positions of power or privilege to be here. At our best, we all do what we can to make this place home for each other, for whatever time we are given here. In doing so, we often encounter Christ. Then, like the Wise Men, we continue our journey, and go home with different hearts, by another way. ABOVE: Loe La and Cray Kyi enjoy a tour of the local high school, thanks to the good people at Madison County High. BELOW: The good times rolled at a farewell party hosted by the two Burundi families the night before moving to Atlanta. Everybody, including the Karen currently with us, pitched in to clean and set up the two cabins in order to welcome two more Karen families just as this newsletter goes to the printer. Turns out the families currently with us know the new Karen families from Mae La! Joy all around! PAGE FIVE
Jubilee Partners P.O. Box 68 Comer, GA 30629 Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage is PAID Comer, Georgia Permit Number 14 RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED December 2007 THE JUBILEE RETREAT SHACK IS A FAVORITE PLACE FOR PRAYER AND RESPITE