13/9/2013
Finding a sense of familiarity or
belonging in a refugee settlement camp is the toughest feat for any newly
arrived refugee. They have to leave their homes, friends, and a greater part of
their belongings to come to an unknown place in hopes to start over in a safe
environment. What refugees do after they get to a safe environment is up to
them. Many refugees come to camps already mentally defeated, without the will
to strive for more with this new opportunity in Kyangwali, while others fight
and claw their way back to the path of a similar life they used to know or
perhaps even a better one. For Marie Mafuta Yanakia the struggle to get her
life back was a difficult journey on an emotional roller-coaster full of highs
and very lows.
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| Marie Mafuta Yanakia in her garden |
Marie has been a produce farmer
all of her life. Back in the Democratic Republic of Congo, before she was forced
to leave the country, Marie had a thriving business growing and selling all
sorts of produce and animals to local markets and restaurants. She farmed her
own massive garden that was able to sustain her family comfortably and was also
able to buy medicine for her children and all of their necessary school
supplies. Marie had a gardening group of around twenty women where they taught one
another and others in their village how to farm. Each week this group pulled their
money together to help less fortunate people in their community get back on
their feet or to provide medicine. She was happy with the life she had and the
friends she farmed with, living comfortably in the place she was born.
However, when the conflict grew to be too much
and was threatening her and her family’s lives, Marie had no choice but to
leave her home, friends, and her group behind for safety away from the fighting
and violence. Marie lost everything she worked her entire life for; she had
to abandon her crops and animals, only taking what she could carry and what was
most important to her. All to come to a settlement camp where she had no old
familiar faces, no farm or home. Marie had to start over with only the small
amount of things she brought with her from the DRC.
When Marie left the DRC and came
to Kyangwali, the only thing she prayed for each night was for everything to
get back to the way it was when she was home. She had never felt so terrified of
what the future in this settlement camp would bring. Never felt so lost and alone
when they dropped her, her husband, and their three children off in their empty
rationed out plot of land where they had to build a new house, farm, and life.
Marie feared for her family’s livelihood every day since they left the DRC. How
would she take care of her children if they got sick? How would she be able
to send her children to school in this foreign country without being able to
supply them with their school supplies? How would they be able to make ends
meet if she could not farm? These questions and others swirled in her head and
only made her more anxious and fearful of her new life here.
Marie has been at Kyangwali for
two years now, and in these two years Marie and her family had to struggle and
fight to get a piece of the life they once had back home in the DRC. For two
years she had to find the strength to carry on even during times when life
seemed like it was fighting against her at every turn. But in those two short
years, Marie has prevailed, being able to establish herself, her family, and their
lives in this foreign country they are now beginning to call home.
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| Marie with some of the members of her gardening group |
Here in Kyangwali, Marie is doing what she
knows best. With the support of AAH she is once again a produce farmer in the
settlement camp, growing and selling onions, cabbage, beans, and eggplants;
raising and selling pigs and chickens, all to the local markets and
restaurants. Receiving assistance and advice from AAH workers on health and
agriculture, Marie is again on the path that she once was back in the DRC. Though
the life here may not be everything she had when she was home, it is still a
step in the right direction to getting her life back in order. Marie has been able
to form a new gardening group of seven women, (it was thirteen at one point
until the other six split off to form their own group due to the success)
helping one another grow their farms, build their houses, take care of each
other’s children when needed, and settle here in Kyangwali.
The benefits of owning a farm goes
far beyond the potential income for the family, it also benefits the family’s
nutritional health, which in a new area with refugees constantly pouring in is
one of the most important things in order to stay healthy. The farm has helped
send her children to school with all of their necessary supplies, and
whenever her children do get sick, Marie is able to run to the garden to pick
produce and sell it to market. That money she makes from her vegetables helps
to purchase medicine for her children in order to get them healthy again. Thanks
to her produce and the nutrition it provides her family, they rarely get sick
and need medicine, this goes for everyone in her gardening group as well.
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| All the ladies of the group help each other pick produce in their gardens |
Marie still has a long way to go
until she can get back to where her life was in the DRC, though she may not
have a plot of land as large as she did before, it is enough to provide for her
and her family. There are many things Marie still wishes to do here in
Kyangwali with her new gardening group. So far they have not been able to
collect money to help other refugees with construction of their homes or medicine
to help families, this is something she is hoping to implement here in the
upcoming year. However, the group is still able to make a difference and work with
AAH to teach others in the community by setting an example and showing new
refugees how to farm properly to get the most out of their gardens so they can
be healthy and successful as well.
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