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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML+RDFa 1.0//EN" "http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/DTD/xhtml-rdfa-1.dtd"> <html lang="en" dir="ltr" xmlns:fb="https://ogp.me/ns/fb#" xmlns:og="https://ogp.me/ns#"> <head profile="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml/vocab"> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/sil-favicon_0.ico" type="image/vnd.microsoft.icon" /> <meta name="description" content="I spent a year in a refugee camp after my family left Rwanda in 1994. So I know the pain and trouble people go through in refugee camps. Refugees in Africa make up a different kind of diaspora. They live in a unique context, with unique challenges. They depend fully on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other NGOs that are in the refugee camps to help, but" /> <meta name="generator" content="Drupal 7 (https://www.drupal.org)" /> <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.sil.org/blog/refugees%E2%80%94-different-kind-diaspora" /> <link rel="shortlink" href="https://www.sil.org/node/327396" /> <meta property="og:site_name" content="SIL Global" /> <meta property="og:type" content="article" /> <meta property="og:url" content="https://www.sil.org/blog/refugees%E2%80%94-different-kind-diaspora" /> <meta property="og:title" content="Refugees—A Different Kind of Diaspora" /> <meta property="og:description" content="I spent a year in a refugee camp after my family left Rwanda in 1994. So I know the pain and trouble people go through in refugee camps. Refugees in Africa make up a different kind of diaspora. They live in a unique context, with unique challenges. They depend fully on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other NGOs that are in the refugee camps to help, but this dependency limits them. They don’t have the right to work or have the right to do so many other things that normal citizens do." /> <meta property="og:updated_time" content="2023-01-03T13:53:14-06:00" /> <meta property="og:image" content="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/images/story/cleneblog.png" /> <meta property="og:image:url" content="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/images/story/cleneblog.png" /> <meta property="og:image:secure_url" content="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/images/story/cleneblog.png" /> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" /> <meta name="twitter:creator" content="@SILintl" /> <meta name="twitter:url" content="https://www.sil.org/blog/refugees%E2%80%94-different-kind-diaspora" /> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Refugees—A Different Kind of Diaspora" /> <meta name="twitter:description" content="I spent a year in a refugee camp after my family left Rwanda in 1994. So I know the pain and trouble people go through in refugee camps. Refugees in Africa make up a different kind of diaspora. They" /> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/images/story/cleneblog.png" /> <meta property="article:published_time" content="2023-01-03T10:02:08-06:00" /> <meta property="article:modified_time" content="2023-01-03T13:53:14-06:00" /> <title>Refugees—A Different Kind of Diaspora | SIL Global</title> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/css/css_lQaZfjVpwP_oGNqdtWCSpJT1EMqXdMiU84ekLLxQnc4.css" media="all" /> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/css/css_EM9PzeHZt2AxxQ3R05nXINg9akBOG66G3hxOgWtlp2E.css" media="all" /> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/css/css_br5moiSfXe70Pay534_aftmsbDHvxZ7a50L-Zq1uvrs.css" media="all" /> <style>.panels-flexible-new .panels-flexible-region { padding: 0; } .panels-flexible-new .panels-flexible-region-inside { padding-right: 0.5em; padding-left: 0.5em; } .panels-flexible-new 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<section id="block-system-main" class="block block-system clearfix"> <article id="node-327396" class="node node-blog node-promoted clearfix"> <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img class="img-responsive" src="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/styles/full_width_1140/public/images/story/cleneblog.png?itok=fEaxujN9" width="950" height="502" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="view view-blog-post-masthead-information view-id-blog_post_masthead_information view-display-id-entity_view_1 text-center view-dom-id-06626f8148738c3d82072af88b041859"> <div class="view-content"> <div class="views-row views-row-1 views-row-odd views-row-first views-row-last"> <div class="views-field views-field-title"> <h3 class="field-content">Refugees—A Different Kind of Diaspora</h3> </div> <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <h6 class="field-content">by <span class="blog-post-author">Clene Nyiramhoro</span></h6> </div> <div class="views-field views-field-created"> <span class="field-content blog-post-post-date">3 January 2023</span> </div> <div class="views-field views-field-nothing"> <span class="field-content"><hr/></span> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>I spent a year in a refugee camp after my family left Rwanda in 1994. So I know the pain and trouble people go through in refugee camps. Refugees in Africa make up a different kind of diaspora. They live in a unique context, with unique challenges. They depend fully on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other NGOs that are in the refugee camps to help, but this dependency limits them. They don’t have the right to work or have the right to do so many other things that normal citizens do.</p> <p>People of the diaspora who stay in Europe and America receive a status that allows them to work, go to school and live like normal citizens; refugees in Africa don’t receive that status. Their lives are completely different from other members of the diaspora who are settled and living fully integrated lives in the countries where they live. </p> <p>Refugees’ children in Africa cannot easily access education. They can go as far as secondary school, but when they try to go to colleges or universities, they don’t have proper IDs to enroll in higher education, as here in Kenya. When you go to the refugee camp you see so many small children running around the camp with minimal care. The parents do not know what to do to take care of them. Some go to school, but others are not motivated to go because going to school in the refugee camp means you do not get properly trained teachers, and there are no materials.</p> <p>Trained teachers probably exist among the refugees, but they are seldom allowed to teach, and if they are allowed to teach, they are not given a salary like any other person. So, those who are qualified will not come to teach because they need to find other ways to earn money to support their families. Even after I left the camp to come to Nairobi, it took me a long time to be able to do what I am doing now.</p> <p>This is because if someone thinks you have been a refugee, the thought that comes to their mind is that you are not worthy, you are not good enough. You have to work very hard to prove to people that you are worthy. I have been fortunate to get connected to people in my life who believed that I could actually do something, and encouraged me to go back to school. When I finished school, people came and encouraged me to try some jobs and to get out there so that people would know about me. It requires a lot of personal effort, but it also requires people who will come and actually speak for you because you don’t have a voice. Unless someone speaks for you, almost nothing will happen.</p> <p class="text-center"><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/clene.jpeg" style="height: 300px;" /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/uganda-2022-2.jpeg.jpg" style="height: 300px;" /></p> <p>As part of the SIL Global Diaspora Team, when I go to refugee camps I work with partners to hold Trauma Healing Workshops. The first was in 2019, in Dzaleka refugee camp, in Malawi, but in 2020 all the workshops planned were canceled because of COVID. </p> <p>I maintained contacts with those from the 2019 workshop. One participant in particular, Grace, started a group called Tazama. Right now it has more than 300 members. The requirement for membership is that you must have gone through a healing group. In the healing group everyone starts processing their pain and grief so that together as a community they can continue to support each other. Afterward, they get together to come up with small income-generating projects to support each other and themselves. This gives them a sense of community and a strong sense of dignity. Grace said, “I don’t want to see women being lonely in their own home. I want all of us to be together so we can support each other because when people come together they share their fear, they share their laughter and also dream together.” Most refugees in this camp come from Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi. We have also been in Terekeka and Yei in South Sudan and Uganda. We are starting to work with Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia and have run one workshop already in Kigoma, Tanzania. In March 2023 we are going to Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya.</p> <p>One thing we have realized is that after people experience healing, their interest in learning the Bible increases. That is why we introduced Oral Bible Stories in Dzaleka in September 2022, and we are planning for another one in September 2023. Our desire is to establish a team that will continue to empower many church goers who cannot read for themselves. Hopefully listening groups will be established, starting with the healing groups that already exist. Combining Oral Bible Stories (OBS) and Trauma Healing is one way to establish a strong and sustainable ministry in communities and to challenge wrong teachings that have caused so much harm. And we have seen that this is actually possible. SIL Ethiopia has been doing OBS partnering with various churches, including Eritrean Churches that minister to Eritrean refugees living in Addis Ababa. The first workshop has been so successful that we would like to invite SIL Ethiopia to help us do the same in Malawi. We have learnt to listen to the Spirit, and not to follow the script, doing something that has not been done before to meet the emotional and spiritual needs of refugees.</p> <p>I am passionate about working with refugees because I know that most of them don’t have a voice. And those who speak for them often do not speak accurately. So I am determined to speak for them. I am determined to be that voice, and hopefully raise up some others who will join me and make that voice so the world can hear!</p> <hr /> <p class="text-center"><em><small>Clene Nyiramhoro is a Global Diaspora Team member with SIL. She does trauma healing training workshops for refugees, and is a Bible translation consultant. She is married to a Rwandan pastor who works with the Kenyan national church in a training capacity. They have six children and one granddaughter.</small></em></p> </div></div></div> </article> </section> <section id="block-block-261" class="block block-block blog-footer-links blog-footer-links clearfix"> <p> </p> <hr /> <p><a class="btn btn-default text-center" href="/blog" role="button">Back to Blog</a></p> </section> </div> </section> </div> </div> <footer class="footer"> <div class="footer-top"> <div class="container"> <div class="region region-footer"> <section id="block-panels-mini-sil-bootstrap-footer-menu" class="block block-panels-mini clearfix"> <div class="panel-flexible panels-flexible-new clearfix" id="mini-panel-sil_bootstrap_footer_menu"> <div class="panel-flexible-inside panels-flexible-new-inside"> <div class="panels-flexible-row panels-flexible-row-new-main-row panels-flexible-row-first clearfix footer-links"> <div class="inside panels-flexible-row-inside panels-flexible-row-new-main-row-inside panels-flexible-row-inside-first clearfix"> <div class="panels-flexible-region panels-flexible-region-new-column_1 panels-flexible-region-first "> <div class="inside panels-flexible-region-inside panels-flexible-region-new-column_1-inside panels-flexible-region-inside-first"> <div class="panel-pane pane-block pane-block-276 pane-block footer-logo" > <div class="pane-content"> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/sil_logo_white.png" style="width: 100px; 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