Our Documentary

Looking Back on What We've Been Doing

What We've Been Up To

   I speak on behalf of the team when I say this campaign has been a life changing, eye opening experience. We've learned many new things, and I see the world through different lenses now. I know it's hard to relate to refugees because most of us, I pray, will never have to forcibly leave America because our lives are threatened; it is imperative that we go to these refugees, if you feel led to do that, and to use our education/careers to serve these refugees in anyway we can. On a lighter note, we've been up to some great things these past few weeks!

Building The Walkthrough

 Building our walk through was a very interesting feat. We had a tight budget to work with, but we were able to put together a pretty cool walkthrough!

Houston Palestinian Festival

    Our walk-through at the Houston Palestinian Festival was dramatic ( to say the least). We had a great time reaching out to people of Palestinian/Arab background. I feel like the people there really appreciated the fact that teenagers are taking an interest in just helping the refugees. I feel like the whole political fiasco is deterring from the fact that there are children growing up without the hope for obtaining an education, clean water, and other necessities. Our walkthrough and campaign helped me to focus on and share where our energy and efforts should truly go towards helping. I also had this AHMAZING fried coconut dessert and a strawberry cocktail (non-alcoholic)! The food there was delicious and the entertainment was really fantastic!

Victoria working on our walk through at the festival

Refugee Focus: Columbia

Left Behind: Colombia

When you think of refugee countries, our minds usually picture the war torn countries in Africa or the Middle East that the media constantly bombards us with in an attempt to flood us with Pathos. What many people, myself included, often fail to grasp is the fact that refugees COME FROM EVERYWHERE. Yes, there are certain regions that produce the majority of refugees, but there are many forgotten countries that produce a substantial amount. This week's feature takes us to Columbia in South America. Columbia, with the 5th largest economy in South America, is probably one of the last countries you would have thought produces refugees.

What is going on?  

For the past 40 years, Columbia has been a battle ground between the government forces and guerrilla groups FARC (an organization of Marxist-Leninist peasants) and ELN (a communist liberation army). For decades, civilian Colombians have been subjected to kidnappings, landmines, sexual violence, random attacks, and other violent methods used by both the government forces and the guerrilla forces. Both of the guerrilla groups are involved in the narcotics trade which adds an extra element of tension and fear among many civilian communities. The narcotics trade further complicates the ability of International Humanitarian Laws, UN aid, and other channels that provide civilian protection because many civilians are illegally forced to grow Coca (used to make cocaine ) that the guerrilla groups sell to buy weapons and other things. As a result, these poor farmers can technically be considered as participants in the armed conflict. That leaves them destitute, because they are barely paid for their labor and they are unable to grow food to feed themselves because they have to grow an inedible crop, and without the widespread support of aid agencies because of their forced role in funding these guerrilla groups. This conflict is the largest and longest ongoing military conflict in the Western hemisphere; about 200,000 Colombians have been killed and 3 million have been displaced.

 

What Happens to the people?  

If you look, it's not hard to find stories of the perils of refugees from Colombia. Mauricio and Liliana are two parents and refugees from Colombia.They fled Bogota, the capital of Columbia, when they were forced to pay a portion of their profits from their food stand business to those guerrilla groups, and they were berated to allow their teenage son to join the guerrilla forces. Due to the fact that they weren't farmers, it was easier for them to apply and get accepted to a UNHCR resettlement program. Now they live a safer life in Buenos Aires, Argentina. There are hundreds of thousands of Colombians with similar stories to that of Liliana and Mauricio, but the majority of their stories do not have such a happy ending. Instead, they are forced to flee to Ecuador (houses over 250,000 Colombian refugees), Venezuela ( houses 250,000 Colombian refugees), or Panama (houses about 200,000 Colombian refugees). The economies in those countries are not stable enough to handle the large influx of Colombian refugees. Consequently, many of these Colombians are forcibly deported back to Colombia and are victims of xenophobia and unfair treatment. Those things are prevented by IHL, but most of the lobbying and monitoring are concentrated in Africa and the Middle East allowing these countries to go unpunished and Colombians to go unprotected.

  We can't continue to let the plight of the Colombians go unheard and unseen. Especially with the increase of technology and terrorism, these civilians need our help and the implementation of IHL more than ever.

Moyo Ajepe

Sources:

Google images

http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/migrants-refugees-and-travelers/columbianrefugees.cfm

http://www.unhcr.org/print/4623926e4.html

New Game

Our team members Archibald Cruz and Justin Bui have created a game that allows to simulate the experience refugees go through!

http://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/nkcci1nsrusvzyvo2mkchq/what-they-left-behind

Draw My Life Video

Kylie Ting and Jeffery Yang have created a Draw My Life Video for the story of a refugee. We hope you will view and share this video. As you view it please reflect on how difficult it must have been for Pearl to leave her home behind. Ask your self these questions.
1) Why is Pearl considered a refugee?
2) In what ways did IHL contribute to her safety and happy ending?
3) How would I feel if I was in her situation?

Left Behind: Zaatari

    I know we said that "Left Behind" would be a Bi-weekly feature, but there are just too many refugee camps to discuss, so we decided to make this something to feature as frequently as possible. In the news, the name "Zaatari refugee camp" has appeared frequently. Due to my inquisitive nature, I decided to do some more in depth research as to what makes this refugee camp in Jordan so, for lack of a better term, special, and what I found was astounding.

  

      Zaatari is an arid space 1.274 square miles in area  located 8 miles from the Jordanian border with Syria. It is home to about 130,000 Syrian refugees, and that number gets larger every day. Started as a temporary solution to the hoard of Syrian refugees fleeing to Jordan, Zaatari has become the fourth largest "city" in Jordan. That last fact left me baffled; when looking at refugee camps, the most common situation is starvation, disease, hopelessness, and an overall negative atmosphere. The refugees that inhabit Zaatari managed to change the fate of refugees and refugee camps. The tenacity and perseverance that seems to flow from the 4.2 million gallons of donated water in the camp into the bodies of its inhabitants continues to astound me. When I read about the fact that salons, pizza delivery services, travel agencies, and other makeshift business ventures have sprung up in this camp, I felt awestruck. As I write about Zaatari, that overwhelming sense of wonder engulfs me again. How is it that these people have managed to create something, a growing makeshift metropolis, out of nothing?

Do it Yourself City

   
    There are many stories of the enterprising refugees that call Zaatari their home that have spurred me to think outside of the box and DO SOMETHING. One story that I really enjoyed reading was the one about Abdel Sattar Rifai. He was among the first group of Syrian refugees that fled to Zaatari, and he made his 12 hour journey to Zaatari on foot. Rifai has always been an enterprising man; before the war broke out in Syria, he started many different businesses. Even though his village was destroyed, his entrepreneurial spirit was not. Upon his initial arrival at Zaatari, he set up an organization of local youth that helped fetch water, set up tents, and perform other tasks for the elderly and sick. Eventually, Rifai was able to set up a profitable business, a jewelery shop, within the camp. “Customers who come to my shop are mainly women and men who are worried that they will be robbed of their cash, and therefore prefer using their savings to buy gold since it is easier to conceal,” he says. The opportunity to go out, earn money, and have a productive way to spend their time serves as a coping mechanism for many refugees living in Zaatari. Their feelings of despair, vulnerability, and listlessness are replaced with feelings of hope, pride, and determination given to them by the businesses that they run.

 Businesses like Rifai's fill the main "Sharia Souq" (market street). There are beauty parlors, wedding rentals, coffee shops, and many other enterprises. A young lady that owns her own seamstress business, Amal Hourani, told Marie Claire "I found purpose and stopped feeling sorry for myself," she says. "Now, day after day I feel stronger. I take strength from the people around me as well." The refugees living there have managed to create a sense of normalcy. Zaatari has become a home instead of a temporary location to many of its inhabitants. Weddings and other joyous occasions are a daily occurrence there, children play in the street, and the people now live with a sense of purpose.
     

What the Future Holds   

  Unfortunately, as far as Zaatari has come in its development of a city-like entity, it still has a long way to go. Rape is a frequent problem due to the communal facilities and the lack of security. Unfortunately, is rarely reported due to the cultural stigma associated with it. Also, child marriage has run rampant throughout the camp. Young girls are married off for their dowries, and crime is still a major problem. Most of Zaatari has to steal its electricity/satellite from the neighboring villages, which has caused resentment from the poor Jordanians. They blame the refugees for driving rent prices, gas prices, etc. up. Many organizations continue to supply the basic necessities to the people that live here, but as the population of Zaatari grows, seemingly exponentially, the aid is gradually being spread thinner and thinner. IHL and many organizations are working in order to ensure that the rights of the growing number of refugees in Zaatari are being protected and the tension between the locals and the refugees are dissipated. Zaatari still has a long ways to go before it becomes a sustainable "city," and hundreds of thousands of people are still depending on the donations and the charity of kindhearted people, like you, for their basic necessities. It's important that we do not stop giving to these people, lobbying for their rights, and empowering them to be able to sustain themselves in the future.

Moyo Ajepe


Sources:
-http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/05/world/middleeast/zaatari-refugee-camp-in-jordan-evolves-as-a-do-it-yourself-city.html?_r=0
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDOuSNJfGII
-http://www.marieclaire.com/politics/news/a8967/women-jordan-zaatari-refugee-camp-living-in-limbo/
-http://noorimages.com/new-lives/
-https://www.wfp.org/stories/home-away-home-building-hope-zaatari-camp
-google images

Left Behind: Yida

        We're going to be starting a new bi-weekly feature entitled "Left Behind." We'll be focusing on a specific refugee camp and the people that live there. The number of refugees gets larger and larger every day, yet the amount of aid allocated to caring for them gets smaller and smaller. It's important that we don't forget these people who have had to leave everything they've known behind.Through these posts, we hope to educate our readers on what being a refugee entails and spur you guys to get involved with the refugees in your community and throughout the world.

     




  Our first entry is about Yida refugee camp located in South Sudan. According to the wall street journal, it's the 7th most populous refugee camp in the world with about 69,500 Sudanese refugees inhabiting this makeshift settlement. National Geographic stated that in 2010 Sudan produced the 4th largest number of refugees in the world, but those that live in Yida only make up a fraction of the number of Sudanese people that inhabit refugee camps all over Africa!

Cause

      What is causing hundreds of thousands of Sudanese people to flee their homes? It all dates back a little over 20 years ago to when General Omar Bashir took control of the Sudanese government in a military coup. This allowed his radical party, the National Islamic Front,  to acquire power and wreak havoc on the, mostly Christian, Sudanese tribes. They inflamed old tribal tensions, and armed the Muslim-radical nomads living in Sudan with weapons that were used to destroy and pillage thousands of Christian villages in southern Sudan. In 2003, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) were formed mostly by Christian Sudanese farmers in order to protect the farming population from the attacks of the Muslim extremists and the government. However, the government retaliated by creating a radical Muslim militia, Janjaweed, to quash the uprising of the SLA and JEM. The resulting genocide in Darfur was the Janjaweed massacring Sudanese Christians in Darfur and throughout Sudan. This massacre began over 10 years ago, yet the Sudanese people are still feeling the effects to this day. Despite the creation of the Nation of South Sudan in 2011 as a refuge for these Sudanese Christians, the Janjaweed continues to threaten the lives of the South Sudanese Christians forcing them to flee Sudan or inhabit refugee camps, like Yida, that have sprang up out of necessity.

       A Glimpse of Yida

     Words cannot accurately describe the situation of the thousands of Sudanese people that call Yida refugee camp their "home." There is no running water, no form of sanitation, no health or education system, and that's just the beginning. The inhabitants of Yida rely on outside aid for food, medicine, clothing, and other basic necessities, and the funding for this aid gets smaller and smaller every day while the number of inhabitants in Yida gets larger every day. There is no formal housing, so people sleep in whatever makeshift tent they can craft. Imagine not knowing where half of your family is, not knowing when your next meal will come, and you not knowing if you will ever make it out of this grass-less field to a safe home. Malaria, diarrhea, chronic malnutrition, and other diseases plague Yida and kill thousands. This is no place to bring up a family, and it's imperative that we help those that can't help themselves by giving them tangible aid and hope for a brighter future. A Glimpse of Life in Yida camp, South Sudan (click here for another video)

IHL and Yida

      A major problem that people in Yida face is the fact that they are not covered under IHL refugee law because they are internally displaced persons. Another issue is the fact that the Janjaweed and National Islamic Front have not agreed to abide by IHL guidelines. The only group to explicitly state that they will abide by IHL guidelines is JEM. Both sides, the Janjaweed and JEM/SLA, have committed crimes that violate IHL, yet due to rampant corruption, it is very hard to pinpoint and try the people that are guilty of those crimes. The factor inhibiting the implementation of IHL and proper accountability, is the fact that very few, if any, countries in Africa recognize IHL and abide by its rules. Humanitarian crimes stem from deeply rooted tribal conflicts, and it is nearly impossible, for IHL to be implemented in such a "tribal focused" continent. The first step that needs to be taken is to strengthen the African Union and establish it as a legitimate ruling body, which would then give it the power to implement and enforce IHL throughout the continent. That proves to be a tremendous feat that has had little progress. However, it is important that we do not stop trying to enforce IHL and do not stop lobbying for IHL to extend its refugee protection to internally displaced persons.


Moyo Ajepe

Sources:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323932604579052742703621858

http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/maps/mapping-displaced-people-around-the-world/?ar_a=1

http://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/sudan-ihl-resource-page-darfur

http://data.unhcr.org/SouthSudan/settlement.php?id=34&country=251&region=26

http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/genocide/genocide-in-sudan.htm
http://allafrica.com/stories/201303181663.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XxbCzLUj2o
http://www.visualnews.com/2013/10/images-yida-refugee-camp-south-sudan/