Darfur - Giving Children Back their Future |
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February 22nd, 2007 - 03:12PM |
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Photo: Emily Holland/The IRC International Rescue Committee communications officer Emily Holland is keeping a blog of her trip to Darfur, Sudan. Feb. 14, 2007 - Today marks one month since I arrived in Darfur. I spend it with some of the 5,000 children the IRC helps across its troubled Western region. We start early for the child friendly spaces – classes are starting -- reminding me of when I was little and ambling to school with lunchbox, backpack and books. I check myself as a little girl passes carrying hers in a trash-bag. These children displaced by the Darfur conflict have lost homes and family members. Some have been separated from their families altogether. In this age of innocence, they've experienced more than adults ever should. We start in Hassa Hissa, one of the more dangerous camps where the IRC works. The squat thatched huts which are the IRC's child friendly spaces are strategically located among the surrounding displaced families’ homes. It's here that children can learn, play, access psychosocial support and catch up on education they have missed. Inside one hut, a teacher reads a story about hyenas to 5-year-olds. 6 and 7-year-olds sing gaily next door: 'Heads, shoulders, knees and toes!' Their squeaky voices make me smile. Still I notice a few holding back -- the rawness of some awful experience evident in their tiny faces. I ask a child protection officer for West Darfur how she helps these littlest ones. 'We discover their problems when they are drawing. We give children paper and colored pencils and they start drawing villages, fire, people on horses and camels. I sit with them and ask, 'Why are you drawing these things?' The children say: 'You don't know these people? These people killed my mother and my father and burned my village.' Then they start talking about what they have been through.' We move onto one of the IRC's child friendly spaces in Hamidiya Camp. Its outer walls are decorated with vibrant designs – all no higher than tiny arms can reach. Inside colorful drawings flutter on the walls. At this point, I can tell which are done by children who have been living in the camps and coming to the IRC centers longer. They draw flowers, trees and cars as opposed to darker images of suffering. Lessons in English, Arabic and math have just finished and a lively game of dominoes commences. Raphael, who manages the IRC's children's program for West Darfur, tells me these games are critical to helping children build friendships and leadership skills, while also giving them a chance to have fun and change negative attitudes to positive ones. 'We encourage children to love each other. Not to be aggressive. Not to do to others what has been done to them. We reinforce this with IRC-formed youth and parent councils made up of representatives from different tribes. Together, we're working to build harmony and cultivate an atmosphere of peace.' A boy named Issa arrives and introduces himself. He's a youth council member, chosen by his peers to represent them at the IRC center because of his dedication to the many activities there: 'I come everyday to participate.' Also arriving is a girl named Habour, who clutches several books and informs me she's too busy for the youth committees. She's studying to become an engineer! We finish up the day where we began: in Hassa Hissa where boys are playing volleyball and girls crocheting decorative knit pieces. The pattern they follow, called futa, is traditional Sudanese. I ask them who they are making these for. 'For each other and our families,' they say. Raphael nods: 'these are vital skills which will also enable them to earn a living someday. The IRC is right now training youth in all manner of activities: everything from bread-making and tailoring to business administration and agricultural economics.' 'What's the most popular course?' I ask. 'Marketing. It's a business community! We are giving them activities that really target their lives. Working hard to prepare them for the future is the way to bring peace to the region.' As the day closes on my first month in Darfur I believe that, thanks to organizations like the IRC, that’s possible. Posted By: Emily Holland | Africa, Children & Youth, Diaries & Journals, _Emily Holland in Darfur Permalink |
