Oru Camp Becomes Long-Term Home for Many Refugees
Vendors line the main dirt thoroughfare, displaying an attractive array of fruits and vegetables for potential customers. Restaurants tempt passersby with colorful signs describing their dishes. Still others offer their services as barbers, electricians, and repairmen. Small groups gather in the hot sun to chat, share news, or even shoot pool. This downtown area, with all the hustle and bustle of a small city's commercial center, is not, however, just any community. It is Oru Refugee Camp in Ogun State, Nigeria.
Since 1990, the year in which the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) established Oru Camp to shelter victims of Liberia's civil conflict, the camp has seen many changes. The camp, formerly a teacher training college, is jointly run by UNHCR and the Nigerian Red Cross, but also depends upon the involvement of several other NGOs. In the past 15 years it has expanded and swelled with every new influx of refugees from a handful of African nations - Liberia, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Niger - and evolved into the tentative, overcrowded community pictured above. Unlike other settlements, though, it is nobody's home: the residents of Oru Refugee Camp are always anxiously awaiting the day in which they can return to their true homes, lives, families, and friends.
The unstable political situation of many of these countries, especially Liberia, over the past decade and a half has, at times, rendered the possibility of repatriation impossible. As a result, some Oru residents have been watching and waiting for an opportunity to return home for over 10 years. Of the over 7000 camp occupants, children account for about 700, according to RESPECT country coordinator Francis Abayomi. Some of these youths fled to Oru virtually alone, having lost their parents and other family members to the violence. Others who came at a very young age have known only Oru as their home, with no memory of their native countries. Less than ten percent are currently enrolled in school. Although youths fill their days with sports and games, many, especially older children, find life in the camp isolated and unstimulating.
In response to this grim situation, just over a year ago, RESPECT Nigeria was born. Over the course of 2004 the program has grown and developed under the care, guidance, and funding of Francis Abayomi, as well as the hard work and dedication of over 35 on- and off-line volunteers. RESPECT Nigeria has earned the support of some of the camp's most important stakeholders, and currently involves over 200 participants.
For more information on RESPECT Nigeria, please see the next issue of the RESPECT e-Zine.