No peace, no dreams

By James Kamira, Social Protection facilitator, World Vision Uganda South Sudan response

Thirteen-year-old refugee Mike lost most of the things that were dear to him when he and his family were forced to flee fighting in South Sudan.

The teenager now lives in a camp in northern Uganda. His dreams of becoming a doctor or mathematician have foundered.

His dreams of becoming a doctor or mathematician have foundered.

Mike, his mother, brother and five sisters now struggle to hold themselves together in the face of hunger and hardship and without the support of his father.  He last saw his dad in December 2013 when his village came under attack.  As gunfire rang out, in the pandemonium his father told him to run with the village.  That was the last time he saw his dad, who was in the army.

“I still remember that evening. Everything happened so quick,” he says. “The whole village was running in one direction. I last saw father telling us to run with the other people. We carried nothing except the clothes we had put on. You could not stay in the house. The whole village was running.’’

“The whole village was running in one direction. I last saw father telling us to run with the other people."

Mike fled across the border into northern Uganda on a journey that his mother declines to discuss. They arrived in Adjumani district, where children now make up 64% of the refugee population. Mike and his six siblings live in one hut. His mother and other distant relatives live in two other huts around a small compound.

The teenager’s life now is very different from that in South Sudan where his family lived in an expansive home of three permanent shelters roofed in iron and fenced with concrete. There was running water and another water source one km away. He even had his own goat - a gift from his father for doing well at school. It was his greatest pride. The goat had kids and Mike took great joy tending them and other livestock in the fields.

A generator provided electricity to the home allowing the children enough light to do their homework at night. Mike had his own bed and large mattress. His brothers, sisters and friends played football and cycled their bikes in the compound.

He has not seen a light bulb in two years.

But Mike had to abandon his goats.

He has not seen a light bulb in two years.

The only water they have access to is from a community bore hole where they have to queue for hours to get just 20 litres.

The seven siblings suffer appalling sleeping conditions. They share two stick beds and during the rainy season the hut leaks. Summer winds tear off the roofing. Still this is better than when they first arrived when the whole family shared just two blankets.

At night Mike covers himself in his mother’s tattered clothes to try to stay dry. Sometimes when it rains and the hut leaks he has to give up his bed and sleep on a floor mat so his younger sisters and brother can stay dry.

At night Mike covers himself in his mother’s tattered clothes to try to stay dry.

There is less to do in the camp and it does not feel as safe as his village did.

“Home is not what it used to be. In the refugee settlement my family was given a piece of land to set up a house which left me and my siblings with a small stony compound to play on. We’ve had to improvise space for a local game which we play with our neighbours.”

“Now all our balls are gone. We have no bicycles to ride any more,” he says. “I hope one day we can all go back to our village.”

Mike, who is the second oldest, worries about his family, his future and his schooling.  In South Sudan his school was a short walk away. There was even a motorbike to get around on. Now he gets up early and often walks on an empty stomach for an hour to get to school. 

“I hope one day we can all go back to our village.”

He says: ‘’I never used to wake up early to go to school. My mum would always prepare us a meal and tea in the morning and put something for breakfast in the bags. But here I eat nothing in the morning except if we’ve kept part of our dinner meal.’’

There are no meals at school, unlike his old school, and so he might go the whole day without anything to eat, hoping that when he gets home there will be something.

“There is no food at school. I have to study on an empty stomach until evening when I get back home. Sometimes I don’t find food at home, especially when there’s been a distribution because my mother has had to line up for several hours in order to get the family food.”

“There is no food at school. I have to study on an empty stomach until evening when I get back home."

Mike has also been put down a year to Grade Six because he was not up to speed with the Ugandan social studies curriculum. 

“I’m worried about what will happen after I complete Grade Seven. There is no job for my mother here,” he says. “We depend on what we are given. Back home my parents had work to do to get money to buy the basic needs. Where will I get the money to pay for secondary school since it's not free here?”

Mike feels betrayed. Conflict has exposed him and his family to severe survival conditions and has thrown his dreams of becoming a doctor or mathematician into doubt. He had hoped his treasured goats would bring in their own income.

But he still hopes things will change and he can go home.

Mike dreams of one day waking up in his old home and of playing inside his old compound. But he knows peace must come first.

“Our neighbours and friends were killed. Everybody ran away. We could not stay. Our school was destroyed,” he says. “It’s as if they never wanted us to easily return home because our school and our home were destroyed and the goats and cows stolen. We have nothing left of what I cherished about my village. If I had my goats, I would sell them to support us.

“If nothing changes, we will stay here in Uganda with our brothers and sisters who are hosting us but we will not have what we used to get back home. No job for my mother means no secondary school and no hope of becoming a doctor. It also means I cannot own many goats like I thought I would”.

Mike’s mother also worries that her children will never complete secondary schooling as she had hoped and worries about the struggle of raising them alone.

Mike dreams of one day waking up in his old home and of playing inside his old compound. But he knows peace must come first.

Mike is a child peace ambassador in the South Sudan Refugee Peace Club where World Vision empowers children to become agents of peace and learn how to live together. Mike also attends the Child Friendly Space, set up by World Vision to give children a place to safely play and learn.

Since December 2013 it is estimated some 550,000 people have fled from South Sudan, and around 1.5 million are displaced within the country. People have travelled to countries including Sudan, Ethiopia and Uganda to seek safety.

As well as assisting with Peace Building and Child Friendly Spaces, World Vision works with the World Food Programme to distribute food to refugees. Its other distributions include essential items like clothing and medicine. World Vision has also implemented breastfeeding corners, to support Infant and Young Child Feeding, and has been improving access to Water and Sanitation Facilities at the camp.