Refugee Women & Children

• Did you know that 80% of the world’s refugees are women and their children?.
• Most people in refugee camps are women and children; Men are often away fighting or are killed or in prison.
• Women have to support their families and keep their culture alive.
• Rape and sexual violence frequently occur in refugee camps.

 

Sarah's Story

My name is Sarah and I come from southern Sudan. I was married to a man called Joseph who was a mechanic and we had two children called Catherine and Gregory. They went to the village school where I taught English.

Our land had been troubled for many years because of armed conflict between the Sudanese government in the north and the people of the south. There has also been a drought in southern Sudan and the United Nations was sending in planes to drop food to our people to help us survive. The government of Sudan sent planes to bomb us when we went out into the clearings to pick up the food parcels.

One day my husband Joseph was killed by a plane and I couldn’t go on anymore. My country was too dangerous for us, so I took my children and whatever we could carry and we joined other refugees making the long, dangerous journey over the mountains into Kenya.

We walked for many weeks and during that time we didn’t have much water and very little to eat. At least we were with other families. At last we reached Kakuma Refugee Camp in northern Kenya. There were many people in the camp. At first we had to sleep in plastic tents and the heat was terrible. I was frightened because some of the men had guns and the women and children didn’t feel safe. I was afraid that my children would be kidnapped and taken as child soldiers. We were in Kakuma for many months and life was very hard. We thought we would never escape. One night two men raped me when I went to the toilet block and I became pregnant. I was in despair.

A Catholic nun who worked with us in the camp spoke to an official from the United Nations about us. He told me there was a chance we could be resettled as refugees in Australia under the Woman at Risk Program. To my great joy we were accepted.

My children are at school in Sydney and doing well in sports but they have some catching up to do with their school work. We are happy in Australia and I have found friends here from southern Sudan. This is important because I do not want my children to forget their homeland and lose their culture. Although I speak English well, I still love to speak my native tongue. The local church gives me a lot of support, and I am working to help other women who have lived through what I survived.

 

Radhika’s Story

I am a refugee from the north of Sri Lanka. I am a Muslim and the Tamils threw us out of my home in Jaffna, but because I speak Tamil, the Singhalese did not accept us. We are in no mans land

I have been in this camp for 10 and half years. We were forced to leave our homes in the dead of night at gunpoint. I was newly married, my husband was a chemist. We had a nice house, and our wedding presents. I am well educated. We ran with nothing – not even our papers. They were shooting and burning the houses. In the camp there is only one pit toilet for 17 families. The water is bad and there is not enough food. The two babies I have borne have died, one at birth one at eight months. Then my husband was taken by the military. I believe he is dead. As a widow, I am the target of the men from the local town and the soldiers. I have been raped so many times. I do not know were to hide. I want to die. My family is desperately trying to raise the money to send me away. Maybe to Australia. I do not know. What will happen to me? I have no papers – I can not get them. I cannot apply for paper to travel, I cannot apply for asylum here – I have tried. They said no. I am very scared for the future, but my family insist that I must escape and try for a new life. (Interview in Sri Lankan Camp – September 2001)

Do you blame Radhika for thinking of using a people smuggler? What would you do ?

 

Tan’s Story

Tan is a Burmese refugee living on the Thai Burmese border. She is 20 years old. She comes from a hill tribe which is targeted by the Burmese military. Many of the men from her tribe are dead, or missing. The women are often taken as “porters” by the soldiers. They are forced to carry the military equipment and food for the army in the rugged mountains. The soldiers take them as “wives”. When the women become pregnant they are abandoned and new women are kidnapped.

Tan is well educated – she was planning to go to University. However all that changed. She has now trained as a “Back pack paramedic, and for 9months of each year, at great danger, she slip back into Burma with a backpack full of medicines to provide basic medical care for the women who are left in such appalling circumstances. She trains midwives to help those who are pregnant. She provides care for the babies whoa re born in the jungle without protection. She is upset because the women need food as well as medicine but she can only carry one backpack. There are 20 other young women like Tan doing this work and in every camp in every country we can find other women, doing dangerous jobs, with no pay because they believe in freedom.

can you imagine doing this work at the age of 20, instead of looking forward to parties and holidays?

 

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