The hope of a refugee
USU and Kepler students at Lake Kivu, Rwanda. Photo by Dr. Shannon Peterson
This past May, as part of a study abroad experience to Rwanda, I met with my refugee college counterparts primarily from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who have been displaced from their homes, fleeing violence or born into harsh conditions in a refugee camp. Everyone I met is still fighting against all odds for a more prosperous life for themselves, their families, and their future children. Over 100,000 people live such a life in the small African country of Rwanda, most having come from the neighboring countries of Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) and Burundi. 1 Meeting with some of those refugees made the extent of my own privilege obvious, but I also learned a lesson about resilience.
In the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) office in Kigali, Rwanda, I watched a video with my colleagues about the everyday lives of refugees within the Kiziba refugee camp near Lake Kivu, Rwanda.2 It showed children running around enjoying themselves on a playground with a brick and mortar school in the background. A few women, employed to watch the children, gave their testimony about life in the refugee camp.
While the UNHCR representatives discussed challenges about camp life, overall I was impressed, and it seemed most of my colleagues were as well. Seeing the video made me excited to speak with the refugee students we were meeting within the coming days. The UNHCR representative had told us that in neighboring countries, like Tanzania, refugee camps were made up of residential tent cities and schools were held underneath trees. What we were just shown seemed impressive in comparison. It wasn’t anything you’d see in middle class America, but it was still encouraging to see given that this was a refugee camp. In addition to schools, the camp had more permanent brick and mortar housing for residents, a pathway to Rwandan Citizenship, healthcare, and an option to go to a university as a result of an innovative educational collaboration between Kepler and Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU).
In 2015 Kepler and SNHU opened a site at the Kiziba refugee camp in Western Rwanda. The Kiziba camp was opened two decades earlier for those fleeing conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is currently home to around 17,000 refugees. According to Kepler’s 2021 Annual Report, the Kiziba Campus site allows promising students in the camp to earn a U.S. accredited degree and pursue employment opportunities outside the camp. While funding for these things was coming from the UNHCR and outside donors, a good chunk of the funding and support for these programs came from the Rwandan government, which hosted and provided land for the camp. The Rwandan government’s funding and support provided to this and other camps in the country can likely be attributed to that fact that, at least since the 1950s, many Rwandans have been refugees at one point or another. Leading up to, during, and after the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi, victims and persecutors alike had fled Rwanda fearing being killed or facing consequences.
A few days after the UNHCR visit, we had the opportunity to meet with alumni of Kepler university and the Kiziba camp. The perspective they gave us of camp life was comparatively grim. The birth rate in the camps is unsustainable, and while refugees had brick and mortar housing instead of tents, it was still extremely overcrowded. STDs are extremely common among youth. Insufficient food and clean water make it hard to care for families. Healthcare in the refugee camp exists, though there is nowhere near enough capacity to give care to everyone. Those who speak out against these conditions may also risk their lives.
According to an article by Human Rights Watch, after the UNHCR cut camp resident’s food allowance in 2018 from $8.90 to $6.70 per person per month, thousands of Kiziba refugees marched to the nearest UNHCR office to voice their hunger and discontent. In response, the Rwandan police opened fire into the crowd of protesters, killing at least eight. 3 A few minor American news outlets picked up the story, but ultimately nothing changed and till this day no one has been held accountable.
Upon learning these conditions and the real and potential violence and injustice that the refugees face on a daily basis, I was furious. How dare the UNHCR imply that everything was okay in these camps and that the people were being well cared for? That the refugees were happy? How could the Rwandan government, who claims to do so much for the refugees in their borders, be so hypocritical and not face any repercussions for these actions?
Later, upon reflection, I realized that perhaps my anger at the UNHCR was a bit misplaced and my expectations of the refugee experience somewhat unrealistic. I had never really explored what the refugee experience was before this trip, or had the opportunity to engage with refugees from an existing camp. Still, I realized that the worst part of discovering my expectations didn’t match the everyday reality for the refugees — and my anger stemming from this — was feeling that I was unable to do anything about it. It felt like none of us could do anything about this injustice — not the refugees, who were constrained by their situation; not the UNHCR, which faced political constraints given its relations with host governments and limited funding; and certainly not me, a young college student who lives in a relatively privileged part of the world. What could a couple students from Utah do to change the conditions in the camp? To influence the Rwandan government? To stop wars and conflict? While other Americans may offer their sympathy or thoughts and prayers, Africa rarely is brought up by the news media or in meaningful US foreign policy discussions. It seems like nobody cares and that there's nothing we can do.
The next morning we had the chance to meet up and engaged with the Kepler students. All of them were either my age or a little older, and attending university just like I was. I watched them smile, play games with us, and talk about their home country. Somehow they were finding the strength to smile, put their heart and soul into their school work, and work against fate which seemed to be trying its hardest to hold them back. On top of living in awful conditions, trying to support their families, and being a full time student, they still had hope. They were still able to look to the future with light in their eyes.
Many of the Kepler students I met wanted to come to America. However every single one wanted to bring their families with them or return with their degrees and improve the conditions in the camps for future refugees. Even with the opportunity to come to the US, they wanted to return and give back to their community.
These students are the most brave, noble, and courageous people I have ever met. Seeing how hard they work, only to give the fruits of their labor back to their community, is incredibly inspiring. People as hardworking as the refugees in Rwanda deserve the opportunity to succeed as much as anybody. Today, I find myself looking for ways to help my friends in Rwanda any way that I can. To help them be as successful as they possibly can in their mission to not only make a better life for them and their families, but also for their communities back home. Looking ahead to my own future, I aspire to be as courageous, altruistic and kind-hearted as the refugee students in Rwanda.
“Refugees.” UNHCR Rwanda. Accessed August 25, 2022.
“Rwanda: A Year on, No Justice for Refugee Killings.” Human Rights Watch, October 28, 2020.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/02/23/rwanda-year-no-justice-refugee-killings.