TANZANIA: THE MAJORITY OF NEARLY HALF A MILLION REFUGEES LIVING IN THE CAMPS IN WESTERN TANZANIA, ARE WOMEN AND CHILDREN
Record ID:
275363
TANZANIA: THE MAJORITY OF NEARLY HALF A MILLION REFUGEES LIVING IN THE CAMPS IN WESTERN TANZANIA, ARE WOMEN AND CHILDREN
- Title: TANZANIA: THE MAJORITY OF NEARLY HALF A MILLION REFUGEES LIVING IN THE CAMPS IN WESTERN TANZANIA, ARE WOMEN AND CHILDREN
- Date: 12th December 2000
- Summary: WESTERN TANZANIA REFUGEE CAMPS, TANZANIA (RECENT)(REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. MCU/SLV OF REFUGEES IN CAMP (3 SHOTS) 0.08 2. CU/SV OF TWIN BABIES ON HOSPITAL BED WITH MOTHER (5 SHOTS) 0.25 3. SV (KIRUNDI) RIBINA NIZIGIYIMANA SAYING: "I need help me make breast milk so the babies eat well. Sometimes my breasts dry up because I am not getting th
- Embargoed: 27th December 2000 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: WESTERN TANZANIA REFUGEE CAMPS, TANZANIA
- Country: Tanzania
- Reuters ID: LVA7GY3Z5B2FM2F4JN2DNO89343D
- Story Text: In the UNICEF State of the World's Children report,
the United Nations children's agency has called on governments
around the world to invest in their children's education,
health care and nutrition within the first 36 months of their
lives instead of putting massive resources into war.
UNICEF argues that providing schools, hospitals and proper
food to the young citizens of the world will ensure they reach
their fullest potential.
However, for Burundi refugees who have fled the ravages of
civil war at home and living in camps in western Tanzania,
this is something of a tall order.
There are close to half a million refugees living in
the camps in western Tanzania. The vast majority of them are
women and children - fugitives of an ongoing civil war in
neighbouring Burundi.
Children born in these camps have a tough induction to
life.
Twin girls, Bukuru and Butoyi were born last month. Each
of them weighed one and a half kilograms, well below the
recommended birth mass of 2.5kg.
Although they are healthy, the twins are not growing as
well as their mother would like them to.
"I need help me make breast milk so the babies eat well.
Sometimes my breasts dry up because I am not getting the right
type of food," Ribina Nizigiyimana said.
Ribina left Burundi in January. She had to walk six hours
non-stop to get to the safety of the camps.
Other women in the maternity ward tell similar stories.
In its annual State of the World's Children report
released on Tuesday (December 12), UNICEF says the first 36
months of a baby's life are crucial to its growth and
development. It is then that a child learns to think and
speak.
What happens at that time - and even before then during
pregnancy - can have a long term effect on how a child's brain
and body develop.
UNICEF argues that children, especially those living in
difficult circumstances like war zones or refugee camps must
be given the best possible start in life through an investment
in their nutrition, health and education - what the agency
calls Early Child Development.
"It builds the foundation for the future life," says
UNICEF boss for Tanzania, Bjorn Ljungqvist.
"If it's there you might not even think about it but if
its not there it really makes it very difficult for the child
to benefit from opportunities in the future including
education".
But mothers living in camps cannot grow their own food and
are often restricted to a diet of aid rations - usually the
same food every day.
A supplementary feeding centre for pregnant women at
Mtendeli Refugee camp is trying to set this right.
Already, the benefits of better nutrition for mums and
babies are clear.
About 250 women come here daily to collect food rations
that will ensure their unborn children have adequate
nourishment and are a healthy weight at birth.
A blend of high protein soya meal, cooking oil and sugar
is measured out by the cup full and given to them. It is food,
without which, these women and their unborn children, would be
the worse for.
Another intervention is through early education.
This morning about 300 six-year olds at a day care centre
in the camp are playing a game about hunting butterflies.
The games are played in a mix of all the languages the
children have been exposed to so far in their young lives -
Kirundi, French, Kisswahili and English.
None of the children have shoes and for most of them the
clothes they are wearing are the only ones they have.
But, their outside class room activities gives them a
chance to develop their intelligence.
Education co-ordinator in the camp, Moise Hakizimana says
it is very important to give them education at this young age.
"We have to prepare the children for primary education.
This education is not formal. But at least when they start
their first class at school they will be prepared enough. They
will know one plus one equals two," he said.
Close to 2000 children are in day care centres like this
one in the refugee camps.
Playtime allows the children to forget the hardships of
camp life. But for some children - letting go of the memories
of a horrific past is a difficult - they need a therapeutic
kind of education.
Isidore and Melchior are brothers. They don't know how
old they are or where exactly in Burundi they come from. Their
parents were killed during an attack on their home in March
this year and Isidore hasn't spoken a word since.
In an art class for unaccompanied minors, he holds a fist
full of crayons. And joins 17 other children in a drawing
lesson.
The pictures they draw are varied - capturing their dreams
for a brighter future - as singers, soldiers, drivers and
presidents.
Sometimes they reveal a little bit of information which
helps to retrace their family.
Jasna Balasko is an UNICEF's officer teaching art to
unaccompanied minors in the camps
"Maybe the most difficult cases are unknown children. We
have them in the camps. They are all too small, all
traumatised, emotionally disturbed - they don't remember their
family members. It is not even possible to know if they are
orphans or not. We do photo tracing It depends on time. If
time will pass these children will grow. They will change.
Their faces are changing and I am not even sure if for example
in two years one aunt will remember the face of her nephew who
left Burundi when he was six months old," she said.
UNICEF says governments around the world should provide
early education, health care and nutrition to their young
citizens so that children like Isidore and Melchior, whose
lives have been fractured by war will at least have a platform
to build on.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None