International Women’s Day insights on refugee women

UNHCR currently is responsible for more than 33.9 million people worldwide (one and half times larger than Australia’s population). Eighty per cent of refugees are women and children.

We know the day-to-day struggle for many women around the world is extremely tough but the situation for refugee women is even more precarious. Displacement compounds the many issues women already face such as sexual and gender based violence, poor reproductive health, and limited access to education and income generation.

To mark International Women’s Day I wanted to share a few of my insights after working 13 years to support UNHCR and refugee women in particular.

Lesson 1: Refugee camps can provide opportunity

Refugee camps are large, often chaotic and unpleasant places to be. But with the right resources they can provide opportunities for positive change for women. From having access to education or skills training not available in a home country torn apart from war through to being able to access health and nutrition programs, these are key foundations to improving women’s wellbeing, and the wellbeing of their families.

One of my great memories is attending a women’s support group in Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya near the Sudanese border which featured in series one of SBS’ Go Back to Where you Came From.

In a cool shelter, a happy and very talkative collection of mothers were sharing health tips for their children and families under the guiding hand of a nutritionist.

Mothers and babies at 'Breast is Best' in Kakuma refugee settlement, Kenya. Photo Australia for UNHCR/ T Mukoya

Under a program called ‘Breast is Best’, women learnt the value of prolonging breast feeding both to improved nutrition for babies but also as a natural form of  family planning enabling better spacing of children. Beaming mums held their bouncing babies aloft as the very real proof of ‘Breast is Best’ practice.

One woman with a huge smile showed off her two children - her 18 month old daughter healthy but slightly smaller than her very roly-poly younger brother who had been nurtured with longer breast feeding. We all laughed at this very human ‘before and after’ demonstration.

Lesson 2: Education is the key to the advancement of women

Education is a key way to improve women’s health outcomes and overall wellbeing. However refugee girls have limited access to schooling. In refugee camps in East Africa for example one in five refugee girls aged 12 to 17 attend schools and only one in three advances to secondary school.

Repeated studies show that the higher the rates of participation of girls in both formal and informal education the better the health outcomes for the whole community, including lower birth rates and reducing practices like female genital mutilation (FGM). 

Girls in school are more likely to avoid early marriage. Education can help secure a better job and provide benefits to the whole family. It leads to higher incomes, lower birth rates, reduced infant mortality and increased public health.Twelve year old Vivita fled Congos’ war with her family and now lives in Nairoi. UNHCR helped her join school by paying for her uniform and her giving her hope for the future. “I believe  if I work hard I will succeed in my studies. I also believe I will be able to achieve all of my dreams,” she said.

Lesson 3: Men are part of the solution

There has been a significant shift in the way community education is undertaken around ‘women’s issues’.

Realising that to effect change you need the whole community on board, UNHCR now targets religious and community leaders, fathers and  brothers to become ‘champions for change’ around violence against women, child marriage, eliminating FGM practice, family planning and education of girls.

Late last year I was in Dollo Ado refugee camp on the Ethiopian/Somali border reviewing our projects we had funded for emergency and longer term support to famine victims fleeing Somalia in 2011.

One year before aid agencies were overwhelmed by the dying. One year later the refugee community was getting back on its feet, able for the first time in many months to start thinking beyond basic survival.

Refugees wanted better infrastructure in the camp, better housing, better water supply, more training and work opportunities. They wanted to live with dignity and security. For women this meant being free from the threat of violence.

Men are powerful advocates for women in Dollo Ado refugee camps in Ethiopia. Photo UNHCR/ D.Corcoran

I met with a group of community activists of all ages, men and women. They were employed to visit refugee families in their camp, providing counseling around domestic violence and practical support such as police intervention where necessary, encouraging girls to go to school and advocating against FGM as a practice.

I was bowled over by their total commitment and passion - and also the results they were getting. According to their estimates, FGM practice in this one camp had been reduced by 40 per cent since their intervention.

I wondered out loud why the men present were so proactive around this initiative. Looking at me as though I was a bit dim, one young man responded that of course men should be involved. It was a question of women’s human rights, he said. Their right not to be mutilated, their right to enjoy good health. He said many of the fathers and husbands he spoke to had no idea about the connection between FGM and the birth complications so many women suffered as a result. Once this was pointed out to them they changed their minds as they loved their daughters and wives.

Everybody in the group nodded in agreement with one elderly gent sporting a spectacular hennaed red beard patting him on the back.

Wow. With men and women like this we change the world!

Lesson 4: simple solutions work

Every year some 536,000 women die in childbirth. Refugee women are particularly vulnerable, often giving birth in remote, overcrowded camps without access to medical care. Improving maternal health is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG) adopted by the international community in 2000. There is still a significant gap between the current reduction by 47 per cent and the MDG goal of reducing maternal mortality by 75 per cent.

To respond to these needs Australia for UNHCR has funded a number of Safe Mother and Baby programs in Myanmar, Chad and Somalia. At the heart of these programs is the distribution of the Clean Delivery Kits.

The kit is made up of made up of a plastic sheet for the mother to give birth on instead of the dirt floor, soap for the mother and midwife to wash their hands and the baby after delivery, a razor blade to cut the umbilical cord, a piece of string to tie the cord off and a piece of clean cloth to wrap the baby in. The kit also includes an information sheet which shows in a series of diagrams the danger signs to watch for when to go to help and some very simple baby resuscitation techniques.

The key benefit of the kit is to help women give birth in a sterile environment and to cut down life threatening infection.

Where the kits have been introduced in emergency settings maternal and neo natal morbidity has been dramatically reduced.

For a cost of around $2.70 each, the kits prove that often the solution can be as simple as piece of soap!

Lesson 5: we are all connected – the power of technology

When I return home from visiting camps I often receive follow up texts from refugees I have met. “Naomi you promised this...” “Naomi don’t forget...” ”Naomi how is the fundraising going?”  Technology has made the world much smaller and in the case of refugees much more accessible.

In Nakivale refugee camp in Uganda, we funded our first ever computer training centre with internet access and established an internet café. Last year the first batch of graduates received their certificate in basic computer skills, a proud moment for the students and their trainers also refugees.

Refugees in the Nakivale Computer Access Centre connecting with the outside world. Photo Australia for UNHCR / September 2011

With internet access, refugees can now sign up to a site called Refugees United, a sort of refugee Facebook where you can post your refugee profile and trace or be traced by lost family or friends. In Nakivale, many families have been reunited with families in other camps and in countries across the world. It shows the power of technology to cross divides, regardless of your circumstances and no matter where you live.

When I asked one of the trainers, a young Somali woman, what it meant to have computer and internet access she replied “It makes me feel more than a refugee”.

For me, that one statement alone made the project worthwhile!

Conclusion

When I have visited camps and spoken to women I know there are many common connections with women globally – as mothers our roles are the same, as income earners, as caregivers. The circumstances we live in may change, but as women we have much in common.

I have also learnt that women are incredibly resilient. It would be easy to typecast refugee women and victims, living in poverty, torn apart by conflict, subjected to unimaginable conditions and facing constant struggles in their life.

But they also overcome incredible adversity, they still nurture their families and they still seek opportunities for advancement. We share common issues about serious issues such as participation in decision making, violence against women and women’s health. And I am proud to say that women are, by and large, always ready to help and support other women.

This International Women’s Day let’s celebrate the many amazing refugee women who with courage, resourcefulness and good humour, overcome the many challenges that displacement from home and country brings.

For more stories of inspiration, please visit our photo gallery celebrating refugee women.

Celebrating the little things: One Direction and refugees have more in common than you may think

What does Niall Horan, the Irish lead singer in boy band sensation One Direction, want for Christmas? The action packed FIFA 13, a racetrack ready Audi R8, a new guitar? Maybe. But like most of us at this time of year, what Niall really wants most of all is to “go home” to spend a quiet and peaceful Christmas with his family relaxing in his native Ireland. Or in his words – care of the Irish Times – “We have little traditions like going to the pub on Christmas Eve and watching telly all day. It will be the same as always and that’s what I love about it.”

How do I know this you may ask, being outside the usual boy band demographic? Because my 16 year old One Direction obsessed daughter Elysia, also currently thousands of miles away from home, sends me frequent, loving and slightly manic updates via Skype and email about her current adventures as part of a school exchange in Japan. And from what I can gather, her new friends apparently are equally crazy about young Niall as their visiting Australian guest.

I can’t wait for Elysia to arrive home – on Christmas Eve – happily just in time for the annual family gathering. And like Niall, we will be enjoying a traditional get together with family and friends.

Visiting Nakivale

Monday 24 October marked United Nations Day a global occasion to highlight, celebrate and reflect on the work of the United Nations and its family of specialised agencies. It was also an opportunity to recognise the support and contribution of civil society to the UN through organisations such Australia for UNHCR. UNHCR is increasingly relying on support from individuals around the world, and Australians are making a very big contribution to its work in many ways.

A few weeks ago five donors and I completed our “Nakivale Trek for Refugees”, which involved an incredibly hard five-day slog through the Ruwenzori mountain range in western Uganda.

To say it was challenging is an understatement. The Ruwenzoris are remote, rugged, and very very wet. Although we had been warned about the muddy conditions, we were totally unprepared when we had to abandon our walking shoes and spend five days in gumboots, slipping and squelching our way through the endless bogs and marshes that made us feel as though we had stumbled onto the set of Lord of the Rings.

What kept us all going was the terrific camaraderie that quickly developed amongst us (inevitable perhaps when you are all sharing the same tent), as well as the knowledge that we were doing this for a worthwhile cause.

Perhaps it was not surprising then that all the trekkers felt the highlight of this journey was not surmounting the peaks of the Ruwenzoris, beautiful as they were, but the day we spent in the Nakivale refugee settlement at the end of the trek.

Although one day was not nearly long enough to see and experience the many facets of this settlement, we were able to visit a number of projects supported by Australia for UNHCR donors.

Some of our experiences were confronting, which is a reality in refugee situations. As one of our party described his visit to the health centre, “For me the visit to the health centre was very confronting. The day we visited there were approximately 500 people at the health centre awaiting medical treatment. This was a relatively quiet day despite most rooms being filled to capacity. It is tough to imagine what a busy day is like. To our shock we were told that the whole refugee settlement had only two doctors due to the skills shortage, which is crazy to think considering the population is almost 60,000.

A young boy receives treatment in the health centre

To end our health centre tour we visited the children’s ward - a space the size of a small classroom - where we met a three year old boy who had lost sight in one eye and had third degree burns to more than 50% of his body due to him pulling down a pot of boiling water on himself in the family’s makeshift kitchen.”

In a totally different experience in the afternoon we attended the opening of the computer training centre, which is also funded by Australian donors. On its first day of operations more than 900 young people signed up for computer training skills. The centre also had internet access, which has opened up a whole world of new possibilities to refugees, such as distance education.

Australian donors should be proud that they have helped achieve so much in Nakivale and that through our support to UNHCR we are part of a much bigger global humanitarian family.

To find out more about Australia for UNHCR's work in Nakivale, please visit our website.

Celebrate World Refugee Day

60 years of international protection and assistance for refugees

2011 marks the 60^th anniversary of UNHCR and also of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees – the key legal instrument underpinning the rights of refugees and the obligations of state parties to provide asylum.

Australia was one of the founding members of UNHCR and also one of the first states to sign up to the Convention. But the world has changed dramatically since the Convention was formulated.

Speaking at Australia for UNHCR’s World Refugee Day Breakfast last Friday, Australia for UNHCR’s Chair, John Denton, speculated about whether the “well of compassion” that led to Australia’s support for the Convention 60 years ago, had perhaps almost disappeared.

I would like to think not. But the ongoing debate about refugees and asylum seekers continues to underlie misconceptions about why people flee their homes and countries looking for safe refuge elsewhere.

This Refugee Week in Australia, SBS is screening a new three part series called Go Back to Where You Came From. According to the SBS publicity, Go Back to Where You Came From follows six ordinary Australians of varying ages and backgrounds, who agree to challenge their preconceived notions about refugees and asylum seekers by embarking on a confronting 25 day journey.

By chance I was in Kakuma Refugee Camp (one of the locations for the TV series) a week before their film crew arrived. Australia for UNHCR has funded a number of projects in Kakuma. Refugees and UNHCR staff wanted to know more about these other Australians who were soon to visit the camp. At first they were confused when I tried to explain what a ‘reality TV/ documentary’ was and that some of the Australians coming may not be very supportive of refugees.

However, after considering it, everyone was surprisingly open and positive. “Let them come, let them see how we live, how we have to survive here, and then they will change their mind.”

I don’t know how this experience did in fact change the way these Australians saw things (we will have to watch the series) but I am convinced that the more we are able to encourage direct contact and personal engagement with refugees then greater understanding and compassion will follow.

In line with this belief, on World Refugee Day Australia for UNHCR is launching a unique initiative aimed at linking up Australian students with refugees via Skype.

The project, Here & There, will be a world first, making possible a real-time video cross between an Australian school and a refugee school in Nakivale Refugee Settlement in south-west Uganda.

Using Skype technology, students in both countries will be able to connect their classrooms, ask each other questions and work together on a creative project to learn about each other’s lives. The project aims to raise awareness among young Australians about the issues facing refugees of their own age, many of whom have spent their childhoods in refugee camps.

It also aims to open new opportunities for refugees. As Gode Migerano, one of our guest speakers at our World Refugee Day Breakfast and himself a refugee said, “I would have loved to have this opportunity when I was living in a refugee camp as a young teenager. It would have opened the world to me.”

To find about more about the project and how you might be involved go to herethere.org.au