Sallam Aleikum (again),Excuse the diary format, but this is the easiest way for me to recall my trips, and also write to you all about them. After a long flight via Amman in Jordan (where I met, got chatting for ages to and swapped cards with the Sudanese Oil Minister - one of the most oil rich countries in the world - if they learn how to exploit this newly found wealth), I arrived in Khartoum in the dark on Sat night / Sun morning at 1am (29th Oct). Came to the hotel (Meridien, but more of a midden for the Scottish amongst you), ate a muy delicioso burger, watched a DVD and slept. People work here Sunday - Thursday, so I was picked up early in the morning to head to the office here in the capital..... which is basically just a more dusty and less developed version of your average African city (funny that, being in the middle of the desert, eh?).
Had meetings in the office Sun and Mon 29-30th Oct, which wasn't too bad. It's decent and the people are friendly. Finding out a bit more about the country's turbulent recent past, the programme work we do here, and trying to gauge what risky areas I had to look at. that night we went to eat fish by the river, which I found out was also the Nile, and in fact Khartoum, at a bridge is where the white nile and the blue nile meet to create the start of the Nile river. Khartoum actually means "trunk" (as in elephants) and it relates to the coming together and creation of the Nile.... Learn something new every day, right?
Tuesday 31st October
Wow. What a long, physically, emotionally and mentally tiring but crazily-interesting, morally-reflective and humbling day!!! Started this morning by meeting the woman from UNICEF in Paris (UNICEF are one of our donors), chatting to her about some key developments, then heading out to the field to do project visits, and see the work on the ground. Basically spent the day in IDP (Internally Displaced Persons), or refugees to the lay-person, camps on the outskirts of Khartoum looking at what Save the Children (SCUK) do with the money on the ground.
A bit of background on Sudanese current affairs (if you're not interested, skip the bit in Italics - Oh thoughtful me!):
Sudan is the largest country in Africa, so yep - pretty huge. It has been at war (with itself) for 3/4 of its history since independence (1956). Khartoum in the centre is basically a Muslim, Arab government, and over the years has been accused of repressing the black indigenous populations in the South, West, North and (more recently) the East, often quite brutally. Regime after regime has been overthrown, and a large part of the discontent was due to the fact that an Islamic administration and legal system was going to be forced into the constitution, obviously to the detriment of the African non-Muslims. It was started, then overthrown, then started again, and now it is the status quo. For a while, traditional Islamic justice was enforced, so people were publicly lashed and beaten, had their hands cut off for stealing etc. even if you were not a Muslim. So obviously the non-Muslim, or mainly Christian, South was not happy and the SDLP (Sudanese Democratic Liberation Party) and SDLA (Army) became the main rivals to the autocratic arab regime in the north, so one of the civil wars (the North-South war). A peace agreement has been signed, forced by the international community, and the South has now been given its devolved parliament, though people argue this is a puppet-theatre. The discovery of one of the worlds greatest oil reserves under the feet ofthe South a few years back didn't do much to help this, as the Khartoum government realised what it would be giving away with any form of "self-determination" leading to independence. Especially if this involves ownership of it's own natural resources. Anyway 4 million of the 6 million people in the South are IDPs, not living in their home land, but in refugee camps thrown up in a flash. 4 MILLION!!!!
Although a peace agreement has been signed with the south, the provisions of this have yet to translate into action on the ground. Darfur (in the West) is still a horrible hot-spot of human rights abuses, rape, beatings, fighting, recruitment of boy soldiers into the armed militia etc. Basically it started as 2 rebel groups representing the nomadic, indigenous black farmers in the West resisting the arab governments policies and rebelling against the government as protest against repression and neglect. So the government has supported and armed arab militia (the janjaweed) to fight them, which has resulted in what the outside world (or those brave enough to say it) has branded genocide. Miliions of people have been slaughtered. Refugee camps of over 135,000 (the population of some UK cities) have been set up and attacked from the air and land by the janjaweed (in total around 2 million are IDPs in the West an some have fleed to Chad). The International humanitarian and aid community has been targeted, with supplies / food / water sanitation equipment / medicine meant for the suffering refugees being forcibly taken my the arab militia, and ATTACKS on neutral aid workers (c.30 a year), including 4 SCUK staff last year (hence we had to withdraw from Darfur - when we were deliberately targeted). The worst story was of our 2 employees driving with aid and trying to get to a refugee camp before dark. They took a shorter route to try to get the aid there on time as the children were sufferering and dying. They were in a clearly marked white Save the Children vehicle, and were almost there were they were ambushed, taken out of the vehicle, shot in the head, and left for dead on the road. In Darfur, the African Union are the peacekeeping force, but they are ill-equipped in terms of logistics and equipment and there are only 10,000 people trying to protect people in an area the size of France. Kashmir (smaller) had 500,000 soldiers. The UN offered, and were talking about coming in to stop the fighting, observe the peace, and ensure the government took action / reigned in the Arab militia and kept to its side of the peace agreement, but the President responded in "fighting talk" saying if the UN (who are already here!!!) stepped on his soil, he himself would take up arms, and allow Al Queda to come in and fight a holy was from inside Sudan....
Anyway, similar internal wars in the East and the North too. And we're talking millions of people on millions of people. The government are fighting (or have been) on all fronts. Sudan topped the world's most failed state list in 2005 (I'm taking a tour of the top 10 - ;-p). Get the picture, anyway?
So today I started by visiting a vocational training centre (VTC) in an IDP camp (Mayo Camp), and the UNICEF woman accompanied us. It was amazing. Driving in was crazy. It was HUGE - hundreds of thousands of families. Makeshift homes set up in the desert, for as far as the eyes can see. Like a huge sprawling, spacious city of homes / tents of various standards and desert. We (SCUK) have built this training centre and trained trainers to train children in the camps. As part of our protection programme, we identify children who we have helped decommission from the militants, children who've never been to school, or dropped out, or can't attend because families cannot afford it or the child can't speak arabic (what the Khartoum government makes all schools teach in - despite the majority of people speaking their own languages / not being able to speak Arabic), or street children, and children who have been shunned by their families. Then we teach them life skills, so they have a chance at a future. It was amazing. In this one makeshift compound, we had set up and were teaching children carpentry, building / construction, IT, tailoring, electrical "engineering", aircon engineering (big business in Africa). I've attached some pics of this. Speaking to the children it was inspiring. They were all offered a future, a chance to get out of the bleakness of these huge camps which are like massive prisons that have become like towns or cities over the years, and they were all eager to learn, valued what they were being taught. Girls were even being trained as builders. It's amazing what capacity children innately have within them to better themselves and their lives. All they need is for someone to show them that there is opportunity for them out there, and that this depressing bleak existence isn't their lot!!! But without the local NGOs, and international NGOs like us, there's no-one to offer that. Their own government don't. People were happy too! Which, given their situation, inspired me and made me realise (yet again) how lucky we all are, and how we can't complain about our lot, as it's a hell of a lot more than most in this world.
We then left the VTC and headed into the heart of the camp/ desert to visit 2 families whose sons we had demobilised from the militia in the South (UNICEF did this bit) then traced their family and re-integrated them back into society (SCUK did this bit). We drove through the camp in our huge white landcruiser (al the INGOs travel in these in Africa - a standard symbol of neutrality and humanitarianism), right into the heart of the camps. Everyone was looking at the car as it thrw up dust, but all the kids (of which there were millions - sadly due to the high rate of deaths from HIV and lack of family planning) were nice and waved back and smiled when I did. The UNICEF vehicle got lost in the maze of huts, tents and homes, so we sat and waited for it. Whilst we were, a guy came up to me, so I rolled down the window and he started speaking to me in some African language. I don't speak any tribal languages, surprisingly enough, so I just smiled and gestured that I didn't understand. He then said something in a mix of English and his own tongue, so I asked him to repeat himself about 3 times, which he did. And all I understood was "black man" and pointed to himself, eyeing me quite agressively. Hmmm..... "I can see that", I thought! I was so tempted to point to my own chest and say "White man" or "Slightly Brown man", but resisted, for fear of offending him or his intelligence. But I had a wee chuckle to myself in my head anyway. Turns out he was an ex-military nutter, and the Sudanese staff who were accompanying me moved him along politely. Oh the fun.
Once the UNICEF vehicle arrived, me and this Egyptian-French woman got out and headed to the house of one of the families. It's funny. The people in the IDP camps are SO SO much more friendly than the average Khartoumian. We were greeted with smiles, and went into their home, which was a room with a few beds, so we sat on the beds, and all the extended family came out, and into the house, and everyone was really nice and shook all of our hands one by one.. Including the children, who kneel and offer their hand as a sign of respect. It was sweet. So.... after a bit of chit chat, and after someone ran out and procured some drinks for the guests, the first boy, Dut, came in and sat on the bed next to me and my UNICEF colleague.
We started chatting to him, but his English was about as good as his Arabic, and it was easier to start speaking in hius opwn tongue, so Ayen (our Child Protection Officer) translated what I and she had to ask and what he replied and said to us. It was more of an informal chat really. Basically, the militia from South Sudan (hundreds of miles away through the desert) came through the camp recruiting boys as young as 11. When I asked him why he went, and if he wanted to, he said YES, and it was because they offered him an Education in the barracks, and better prospects in life, even promising to send them out of Sudan to Nairobi for international study. A better life..., The boy was only 12 years old, and all he could do was look around and see how bleak his future would be, and realise he wanted something better for himself and his family. Promises of money came too... So off he and his friend trot with the militia, his family stopped from taking him back by the "soldiers" / rebels taking him, to South Sudan, where they did get an Education as promised, were well fed, and given very little money, but all along they were getting military training to prepare them to fight in any rebellion / geurilla war. 12 years onld and an expert in how to use a kalashnikov. Impressive, eh? He fought for a year before we found him, and when asked about the things he did / saw, he closed up, hung his head in shame, stared at the floor, and either mumbled or stayed silent. The only thing I got from him there was that he'd watched his young friends die, or disappear, without a trace, and their families were there in the camp, watching with hopeful faces and wondering if we were gonna bring their little boys home in our car too. That was my breaking point, where I had to choke them back (there's always one on these trips). I've attached a pic of him sitting next to my colleague. He also told me he wanted to go back to the army. Leave his family. He told me this in front of all his relatives, as well! Still felt he had a better stab at a future with the armed militias and if that meant fighting to get an education.... so be it! Crazy. He was actually a lovely boy, as was his friend who came to join our discussion, but he had very visibly been affected by the experience of the last 2 years. I asked him whether he had considered a career in Khartoum, and what he could do here / what he was interested in, and why he didn't go to school here. He said he didn't go to school as the government make them teach in Arabic, and he doesn't speak it, and he said he liked driving the cars in the market (some of the outsiders would let him park the cars for them). So I asked him why he didn't try to be a bus driver or taxi driver.... he said because he didn't want all those dodgy people in his vehicle, and we all had a bit of a laugh at that. Anyway, the reason for the questions was because I was trying to get an understanding of his "needs" and "wants" in order that we complete the "re-integration" part of the work.... and if we didn't have a response / project that catered to his needs already, then I would recommend that we try and create one. I know we do all the other life-skill classes, but driving is something that we don't and I imagine we'd get a lot of kids wanting to learn to drive and if that'll keep them off the streets and out of the army, then it's something worth pursuing, and something worth going into my recommendations. Anyway, we chatted for a while longer, and had a laugh. There were about 20 of us in this tiny wee shack, but I felt so comfortable and the people were unbelievable welcoming and friendly. It was like I'd gone to visit my relatives from way back.... Amazing!After that we left and went to a school that we were funding. The school day had ended but a commuinity group that we had set up, to represent the people in an area of the camp, were having a meeting. I sat in on it for a while, and listened to the 4 or 5 different languages, and the translations which followed, and realised it was more of a forum for complaining. At the end of the day, these people have loads of differences, and varying priorities, so I listened to what they were saying, and then I was asked a couple of questions direct. I always get it from 1, but when people ask me why can't we do XYZ.... I have to tell them that we are limited in what we can do, by our own goals, and by our donors conditions attached to the funding. We also need to ensure we implement sustainable projects that will continue to have an impact if and when we leave down the line somewhere. Some things we can agree to look at, and I can have an influence in some things, but it's not my place to get involved in the programme design. I was there as an observer that day. Hard to do, but true and people understand. Anyway, I left and went outside into the 40 degree baking heat to play with the cutest kids, who were playing with an old tire.
Got to meet the sister, and the mum too, who was trying to get me to take her and the baby back with me. 
All just playful and joking around though, which was lovely. It was a perfect ending to a really meaningful and eye-opening day! 
More to follow next week..... I'm heading to these pyramids on Friday a few hours north of Khartoum towards Egypt, in North Sudan. Apparently they pre-date the ones at Giza, even if they are smaller!!! I've attached a few pics for now. Hope you like. Better dash. This is an epic!
Sallam! Or "Peace"! One last thought, though, people... whenever you start complaining of feeling down about something... have a wee think and just remember that no matter what we're worried about..... we're never really "that" hard done to in this privileged life, now, are we?.......... OK, Oprah signs off.... ;-p
No comments:
Post a Comment