This fortnight's thi>e Refugee Camps: Women and Children at Risk Issue 148
 
 

Refugee camps: Women and children at risk“Violence against women is perhaps the most shameful human rights violation. And it is perhaps the most pervasive. It knows no boundaries of geography, culture, or wealth. As long as it continues, we cannot claim to be making real progress towards equality, development, and peace.” UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, 1999.

Refugee Camps
Imagine that you are told you and your family have to leave your house. What will you take? How will you transport it? Panic sets in and there is chaos in the air. And this has been the reality for millions of people around the world.

A refugee camp is a camp set up to provide immediate relief for people who have been forced from their homes. They provide only the most basic of human needs and are never meant to be a long term place to live in.

Trouble on the Thai/Burma Border


map

Mae Sot is a small town on the Thai-Burma border whose main street is lined with small restaurants and stalls selling gemstones and cheap goods. It is known locally for two main reasons. The first is the town's location on the gem and drug routes from Burma , and the second is the Mae Tao clinic - generally known as Dr Cynthia's.

Dr Cynthia Maung, a Karen (the largest Christian ethnic minority group living in Burma ), and thousands of other Burmese people fled to Thailand after the pro-democracy uprising in Burma in 1988. She set up a clinic which became a vital service treating trauma, malaria, diarrhoea, gunshot, shrapnel and landmine injuries which were rampant amongst the refugees. She also trained midwives to teach villagers about hygiene, nutrition and reproductive health, as well as “backpack medics” who would cross the border with medical supplies to provide medical care to isolated villages in Burma .

Within clinic grounds people are generally left alone, but once out on the streets they could be picked up at any moment by Thai police to be deported to the border. Here they face a life of uncertainty, violence, poverty and crime.

Around 150,000 of displaced Burmese in the country are impoverished and Dr Cynthia's clinic is one of the very few places they can get help. In 2004, the clinic saw to the needs of many thousands of patients – needs which ranged from baby vaccinations to injuries from domestic accidents and violence as well as war and landmines.

Africa and conflict in Sudan
Africa is the second-largest of the world's continents and makes up about 22 per cent of the world's total land area. The Republic of Sudan in north-eastern Africa is the largest country of the African continent. Sudan has a total area of 2,505,800 sq km, and although its population is over 35 million, only 2 per cent of the people are aged over 65. Fighting in the Darfur province of western Sudan has prompted one of the world's worst humanitarian crises in more than a decade. The conflict has left two million people in need of aid, and refugee camps have been set up in many areas to cater for the huge number of people seeking safety, shelter, food and water.

Women and Children
Women and children are more at risk and seem more vulnerable then men in these refugee camps. The International Women's Development Agency (IWPA) reports that many women flee Burma and head for Thailand . They do this to flee from forced re-settlement, forced labour, and rape by soldiers. Language and cultural barriers make refugee women prime targets for unscrupulous employers. They endure unsafe work places, low wages, and long hours without any hope of a way out. In this climate of extreme poverty and oppression, thousands of women and girls are sold, deceived or lured into Thai brothels each year. They face conditions which can only be described as slavery and are exposed to HIV infection. Human Rights Watch Asia  has stated that women and girls suffer a wide range of abuse, including debt bondage, illegal confinement, forced labour, rape, physical abuse, exposure to HIV/AIDS, and in some cases, murder.

MDG 3: Promoting Gender equality and Empowering Women
Ms Prak Sokhany was one of the 1,000 women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. She is also the Programs Advisor for Caritas Australia 's partner in Cambodia . Ms Prak believes that “the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) cannot be seen as individual goals. They are all interconnected. Gender equality and empowering women are a requirement of every goal. We cannot achieve the goals in isolation.”

The MDGs are something that many people strive to achieve, and it is through an integrated approach that this is being done effectively. It is not possible, as Ms Sokhany says, to achieve these goals in isolation, we need to see all of the MDGs as something to strive for and achieve in collaboration.

25 November: International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women
White Ribbon Day was created by a handful of Canadian men in 1991 on the second anniversary of one man's massacre of 14 women in Montreal . They began the White Ribbon campaign to urge men to speak out against violence against women which is a problem that does not discriminate on basis of age, financial status or country.

All people are human and as such should be able to live a life where their most basic human rights are protected and upheld.

 

    

Teaching and Learning Activities

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION


1) Go to www.abc.net.au/triplej/realappeal/
refugeestories/default.htm and read about the stories of young refugees now living in Australia . How do the qualities of love, compassion and strength help these people to endure the trauma they faced?

2) Pray for the refugees in the world. Go to
www.cafod.org.uk/resources/worship/prayers
/prayers_for_refugees for many refugee prayers, and to www.cafod.org.uk/resources/worship/prayers/
emergencies/day_for_darfur_prayers/join_me_in_a_
prayer_for_darfur to read a prayer written by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Keep in mind that the word ‘ Darfur ' could easily be substituted for all refugees around the world.

3) White Ribbon Day makes people aware of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Go to www.whiteribbonday.org.au/index.cgi?tid=19 and read about the violence that some women in Australia fall victim to. Design posters to make people aware of the issue. You may even get involved in the day. Go to www.whiteribbonday.org.au/index.cgi?tid=71 for ideas.

4) Hotel Rwanda is a movie based on the true events which occurred in the African country of Rwanda in 1994 when almost one million people were killed in one hundred days. People were displaced and fled to refugee camps. Go to www.hotelrwanda.com/
main.html and read about the conflict, view a preview and read facts about the situation.

  • Briefly describe the situation that led to one million people being killed.
  • Why did it happen?
  • What were some of the consequences for the women and children?


5) Go to www.caritas.org.au/education/IWD.htm and watch the online video ‘Who Am I?'

  • While watching the video, list the information stated about the role of women in the world.
  • How could the health, education and employment opportunities of women improve and be recognised in society?


HSIE/SOSE

Civics

1) Go to www.khrg.org and read about the Karen Human Rights Group which is a small and independent group documenting the human rights situation of people in rural Burma. These people are displaced and faced daily struggles. “We dare not go back to our village. All of our livestock were lost. We ran away to the forest during the rainy season.  We are facing food shortages and problems with sickness.” Saw K, Lu Thaw township (July 2006). Select one of the links below and read about the first hand stories of the people. Comment on how their basic human rights are being abused.

2) Shelter is one of our basic human rights. Go to www.cafod.org.uk/news_and_events/emergencies/
conflict_in_sudan/shelters_for_hundreds and read about the shelter many Sudanese are calling home. Identify problems associated with this kind of living. How can these problems be overcome?

3) Refugees come from all countries around the world. Read about some of their personal stories. Use these as the basis for a class discussion on refugees, their lives and rights:

4) Go to www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/
mdgs/index.html and click on MDG 3. Read ‘About this goal' and ‘What this goal means'. Why is it important that we work together to ensure this goal is achieved?


Geography

1) Go to cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/SegwayEd/lessons/
search_ice_snow/worldmapL.gif to obtain a blank map of the world.

  • Label the seven continents.
  • Locate Tanzania , Burma , Thailand , Sudan , Kenya . These are all countries that have housed refugees or are countries that people have fled from in order to avoid persecution.
  • Using the map, list the countries that surround Sudan .

2) Go to www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID
=20306&Cr=burundi&Cr1

  • Where are these refugees originally from? Why did they have to flee their homes?
  • What is ‘resettlement' and why do people need to be ‘resettled'?
  • Go to www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?
    NewsID=20216&Cr=democratic&Cr1=congo     and list the items that families were given as part of a resettlement package. Why were these items essential to the returned refugees?

Economics

1) Go to www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/
mdgs/index.html and click on MDG 3. Read about ‘Example of a successful project'. The Grameen Bank is an excellent way of financing small projects. How does this work? What other ways could you think of to ensure financial security and independence for women and other people in need of money?

2) As a class discuss ‘The importance of microcredit and making people financially independent'. Use the following sites to aid you:

3) Go to the following sites and see what is happening to ensure financial independence for women. How is this helping to achieve MDG 3?


ENGLISH

1) Go to www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?
NewsID=20288&Cr=Myanmar&Cr1=&Kw1=
refugee+camps&Kw2=&Kw3 and read the newspaper article. Write an information report about ‘personal identity'. In this report include the following:

  • Why identity is important
  • How you would feel if your personal identity was taken away from you
  • What living with no identity would be like
  • How you prove your identity once it has been taken away from you

2) What if one bureaucrat's decision determined whether your family will live indefinitely in legal limbo not knowing if eventually you are going to be able to enjoy life and freedom or be condemned to harassment, trauma and maybe death? This is reality for many of the world's refugees who experience an inability to communicate in the country they are residing, do not have money for legal teams to fight for them, and have been threatened and harassed by many people in the past. Imagine you are the Co-ordinator of a refugee Camp. Write a letter to the United Nations calling upon them to encourage member states to accept more refugees into their countries. (What arguments would you consider? What responsibilities do you believe countries have in accepting refugees and why?)

CAPA

Drama

1) As a class discuss the following:

  • What is a refugee?
  • What is a refugee camp?
  • Why do people become refugees?

a) In groups of three or four discuss the feelings associated with leaving your home land for somewhere foreign and unknown.

b) Devise a movement to depict the feelings you discussed. This may be a moving dramatic piece including dialogue or a freeze frame/tableau.

c) As a class, reflect on the feelings generated.

5) Read about the following refugee stories and devise a way for drama to be used to share their stories.

a) Ibtihal Al Battat from Iraq : www.abc.net.au/triplej/realappeal/
refugeestories/ibtihal.htm

b) Fahim from Afghanistan :www.abc.net.au/triplej/realappeal/
refugeestories/fahim.htm

c) Zlata from Bosnia : www.abc.net.au/triplej/realappeal/
refugeestories/zlata.htm

Parish/Community/Social Justice Groups

1) November 25 is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. UNIFEM Executive Director Noeleen Heyzer believes that “violence against women is the most pervasive violation of human rights, occurring every day, in every country and every region, regardless of income or level of development... On 25 November people around the world are coming together to condemn this universal crime against women.” To read about what is happening, personal stories and how you can help eradicate this problem go to www.unifem.org/campaigns/november25/index.php

2) To find out more about white ribbon day on 24 November visit: www.whiteribbonday.org.au/index.cgi?tid=1

3) MDG 3 aims to promote gender equality and empower women. Go to www.un.org/millenniumgoals/index.html and www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/mdgs/
index.html to see the progress being made in achieving this goal.

 



  
© 2004 Caritas and Church Resources   Home