What life is like for a refugee: Brantford students build mock camp
CBC News | Posted: November 17, 2015 6:48 PM | Last Updated: November 17, 2015
Two students talk about what life is like in a refugee camp
What's it like to live in a refugee camp, fleeing a war zone? Students at Wilfrid Laurier University's Brantford campus want the world to know. Their mock refugee camp is meant to give people a glimpse of what refugees face in the world's crisis zones.
This is not an academic exercise. The student leaders have lived as refugees. Dammee Sero spent a decade living in a Kenyan refugee camp after escaping Ethiopia with her family. And Abdikarim Osman lived in a refugee camp in Kenya after his family fled Somalia during its civil war.
Craig Norris, host of The Morning Edition on CBC Radio in Kitchener-Waterloo spoke with them Tuesday morning. Listen to the full interview by clicking the link at the top of this page or read an abridged and edited transcript of the interview below.
Q: Why are you building a simulated refugee camp?
Dammee Sero: To raise awareness about refugee issues. We want people to know about the challenges refugees go through. We want people to get involved.
Abdikarim Osman: It's easier to explain what life is like for refugees by building this tent. It's a temporary shelter. For refugees it's a shelter for people who come to another country for safety. They get to see the kitchen area. They get to see the living area. They get to see the storage. And all of that is just in one tent.
Q: Why is a tent so symbolic of the refugee experience?
AO: It symbolizes the scarcity of accessing shelter. There is no permanent shelter.
Q: How did you and your family end up in a refugee camp?
DS: The Ethiopian regime that is governing the country is very oppressive. My dad was jailed twice. The third time he escaped to Kenya. That is how I ended up in a refugee camp. I lived there for 10 years. It was hard. There are a lot of challenges. There are service offered by UNHCR and other NGO's but it is only for survival. It doesn't go beyond that. It was really hard. Resources are limited. We thought we would be there for a few months, maybe a year, but we ended up living there long.
AO: I ended up at a refugee camp in Kenya at the border of Kenya and Somalia. My family moved into that camp in 1991 after there was a civil war in Somalia. It was very dry all the time. Temperatures would be as high as 40 C. There are not a lot of services and facilities there. There are not a lot of health facilities and the sanitation system is not well developed. When it rains there is no drainage system. Water is lodged all over.
Q: What was daily life like? How did you get your food?
AO: There was support from UNHCR and other NGO's. But there are so many refugees there the NGO's can't cater to all there needs, so it's basically for survival.
Q: How did you get out of the camp?
DS: I got out through the World Universities Services of Canada (WUSC). I worked hard in school and after that I applied for the WUSC program. I got the opportunity for a scholarship. There are schools in the camps. Primary schools. High schools. The only problem is we don't have enough resources.
AO: That's how I got out. WUSC is the only organization that provides higher education to refugee students who perform well in high school. It's the only organization that I know of that brings students to study in Canadian Universities. Out of 137 students in my class only two of us got the opportunity to come here.
Q: You both have the opportunity to become Canadian citizens. What does that mean to you?
DS: It means a lot. When I was in the refugee camp I felt like I didn't belong anywhere. Right now I am a permanent resident. I have more freedom. I feel like I belong here.
AO: It means a lot to me. It gives me lots of freedom. I lived in Somalia for 18 years. I didn't have a Somali passport. I didn't have any documentation whatsoever. I just had U.N. documents. When I came to Canada I just had U.N. travel documents. I was an alien in that country. I got my citizenship this June. So, I am a Canadian right now.