Surviving and thriving as a refugee

Monday, June 15, 2015

17-year-old Remy believes that Kakuma Refugee camp is the best place for him to hide from the numerous threats he lived with in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Back home in Goma village, before the trouble began, Remy lived happily among his family in their three-bedroomed house in its own compound. His father, Samoyaka, was a pastor; he says it was his Dad who taught him the love of God early in his life. His mother brought in good money working as a tailor, and Remy remembers his family enjoyed a varied diet of bananas, meat and fish.

‘‘They came one night and wanted to kill us."

But because his grandmother is Rwandan, when tensions flared among the Congolese and Rwandans, the threat of violence and death came to his family's door. ‘‘They came one night and wanted to kill us. They killed another man who came to live with us. They burnt our house too,’’ he adds, visibly shaken by these fresh memories.

The family, together with others, walked all the way to Uganda, where they stayed in the Chagga Refugee Camp for two years before making their way to Kampala, Uganda's capital city to stay with a Congolese friend of Remy's dad for three months. “It was another challenge, since we were so many in the house, and because we are not Ugandan. I overheard people tell my father that he could be arrested for being in Uganda without permission. My father prayed a lot,” says Remy.

“My father heard that refugees were being treated well in Kenya and children were safe there."

And then, someone advised Remy’s dad to take his family to Kenya. “My father heard that refugees were being treated well in Kenya and children were safe there,” explains a beaming Remy. “So we left Kampala and ended up in Kakuma Refugee Camp. We were well received. I like this place,” he says.

For now, and day by day, Remy's focus is not only to survive camp life, but also to thrive within it. “I miss the good food we used to have at home; the bananas, meat and fish…getting charcoal to burn is a problem here, and so is getting food.”

Remy's focus is not only to survive camp life, but also to thrive within it.

Remy has also witnessed violence within the camp.

But he sees the positives in his situation and how he can thrive.

Talking about life back home Remy says:

“There is no peace there. Just a lot of fighting. It is insecure. But I feel safer here in Kakuma,” says Remy. “I am lucky that my whole family is here. Some of the children at my school do not have their father and mother with them, or do not know where some of their sisters or brothers are.”

"Some of the children at my school do not have their father and mother with them."

Though in a distant land as a homeless refugee, Remy hopes for a good future. “I will just remain here and continue with my education. I want to be a doctor when I grow up. A doctor, so that I can treat those injured in war and help them to have life again. I will study to make sure I reach that far,” says a beaming Remy. His ambitions and his dreams are untarnished by his most desperate of circumstances.

It is estimated around 430,000 people from the Democratic Republic of Congo are living as refugees, in countries including Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.

Currently more than 150,000 people are thought to be living in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya.

World Vision has worked in Kakuma Refugee Camp since April 2013 where, alongside the World Food Program, it provides food assistance to around 73,000 people each month.

World Vision has also worked with the Lutheran World Foundation and UNHCR to improve access to water for people living in the camp, and has worked with UNICEF to build ten classrooms at the camp.