Gihembe Project
Kiziba Project

Rwanda: Update (through February 2003)

Lining up to be counted...Kiziba, 16 October

20 October 2002

The schools of the Congolese refugees in the camps of Kibuye and Byumba in Rwanda were ready to begin the new school year on the first week of September. Instead, buses came to take the refugees back home, a “voluntary repatriation” to a region where there is little security and where hardly anything is in place in order to welcome the refugees and facilitate their reintegration. This move came as a surprise to JRS education teams, who found themselves caught in the dilemma of complying with the order of the Government and the responsibility of enabling the children to begin the school year.

Houses were destroyed, people coerced to board the waiting buses, veiled threats that “if you do not go now, you will not be. helped to return to Congo at a later date”….

All these pressures weighted heavily on the communities of both Gihembe and Kiziba camps, although events in Byumba went at a faster pace than in Kiziba.

JRS was allowed to carry out, after long dialogue, a head count of children and teachers present in Kibuye Camp. It was moving to see the children run joyfully to their classrooms, ready to sweep them in order to start classes. Many teachers profited from the time before the actual count in order to teach something on the spot. Three fourths of the students and most of the teachers are still in the camp. After the exercise, a report on the findings was written and presented to MINALOC (Ministry of Local Affairs).

We hope that the same procedure will be carried out in Byumba, although the situation of this camp is much more complex. Many refugees have returned to Congo. It is very striking to look at the camp from a distance and notice the holes made in the landscape by houses that have been torn down. And it is distressing to see the work of hope carried out during the month of August by students, teachers and parents. Classrooms made of plastic sheeting were replaced by sturdier ones constructed with local materials (wood, bamboo) - structures designed to improve the quality of learning by providing an alternative to the stifling heat of plastic sheets, but which now are half-finished and empty.

November 2002
Permission was finally granted to reopen the schools in both camps. The term opened with the students and teachers who were present in the camps. Many teachers and well as students returned to the schools during the course of the term, which was extended until December 28 in an effort to cover the lost time.

February 2003
Statistics for the month show that every effort made was worth while. Numbers of children and teachers present in the schools and programs speak for themselves: