AS the founder and international co-ordinator of RESPECT International, Marc
Schaeffer is helping to "build bridges between non-refugee students and refugee
students" around the world through pen-pal letter exchanges.
Schaeffer, 33, a teacher in the literacy program at Stevenson Britannia Adult
High School in St. James, began RESPECT (Refugee Education Sponsorship Program:
Enhancing Communities Together) two years ago after seeing the work being done at
the Winnipeg Refugee Education Network.
"It (WREN) does all kinds of great work raising funds for refugee-related
charities and generally building awareness of refugee issues among people in
Winnipeg. It also sponsors refugees (who move here)," says Schaeffer, whose wife,
Kae Sasaki, is artistic director of RESPECT.
"At one point, I really wanted to help refugee communities directly in the
refugee camps worldwide."
Besides the letter exchanges, RESPECT's other two stated goals are to
increase awareness of refugee issues among non-refugee students in
participating countries, and to encourage students to raise some funds
for their sponsored refugee school.
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In a report on refugees in India, U.S. Committee for Refugees records that in
1999, the Tibetan refugee population in India marked its 40th year in exile, led
by their spiritual leader His Holiness The Dalai Lama. His Holiness fled to India
in 1959 after China forcibly occupied Tibet. India allowed Tibetans to establish
their own administration based in the city of Dharamsala in northern India, which
functions as the Tibetan government in exile.
The number of refugees in India has fluctuated, since many of the original refugee
population died, children have been born in refugee settlements and thousands more
arrive from Tibet annually. In 1999, more than 110,000 Tibetan refugees lived in
India. Some 2,200 Tibetans arrived in India during that year, via Nepal, which
they access mainly via the Nangpa pass. However, Nepal has recently begun to
deport Tibetan refugees from Nepal instead of allowing them to transit via Nepal
to India. The Tibet Information Network reports that at least 15 Tibetans are
known to have been repatriated from Nepalese border areas since 25 November 2001.
The Nepalese stopped granting legal refugee status to Tibetans who arrived in
Nepal from Tibet after December 1989. As a result of increasing trade links
between Nepal and China refugees are currently being forcibly deported.
Although India continues to allow Tibetan refugees to enter, it has not granted
legal residence to most of those who have arrived in the recent years. Tibetan
refugees are facing a plethora of difficulties, which are making their chances of
escaping persecution and in may cases torture, in Tibet, even more slim.
