In UNFPA, the countries surrounding Ethopia are not doing well enough to sustain themselves, much less to help the Ethopian refugees. The refugees need food, water, jobs and shelter, but so do the locals. The government has duty towards its citizens, more so than refugees.
It sucks a lot to be a refugee. After their arduous journey escaping the cruelty of your homeland, you arrive as an outsider to a country. Your human rights matter less than the real citizens of the country. You were forced to behind your homeland, the place you belong to, your friends and relatives who could not make it past the border, and now you have nothing. Maybe you brought some belongings with you but the country you arrived in don’t care. They don’t care. What are you left with?
No means of survival. Deprived of the human basic needs, you live day by day. How are you going to get food for today? Where do you find water? How are you going to put up with the weather and sickness of today?
No dignity. No one respects you. You aren’t seen as a human. You are a victim; you can’t help yourself. A weak, dependant vermin. A foreigner from another country, here to steal their resources through pity for your unfortunate circumstance. A thief. A scum.
That’s what they all tell you, so I’m here to tell you something different. You are not, you are human. As Thomas Jefferson says, “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness….”
Just because some other people judge you for your past, does not mean that you are forever inferior to them. Words are just words, policies are just social constructs. You are you. With you, you bring your physical existence, your mind, your feelings, everything that makes you a human.
People who seek refuge can be so much more than just a refugee. You can contribute to your new community, in a new home. There are refugees who are living as any other people do, using their skills to better their community and make a living for themselves. Living on their own. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has a program providing job training for refugees. Patience attended this training to learn photography and videography. She didn’t let her past define her, instead she learnt life lessons from her past and it served her well. Her arm was amputated in the civil war in her homeland. That did not stop her from using the camera with one hand. She learnt the life lesson to have confidence in herself and used it to make a place for herself in this world.
Lispher is another awesome person who makes a living by herself. In fact, she owns a small restaurant with two employees. Thought refugees could not own a business or manage other people? That’s where you are wrong. Lispher is now financially independent and has plans to expand her business and become richer. She’s heading upwards and she’s going to go far.
These two successful people do it in spite of the additional taxes they have to face as a foreigner. Admittedly, they couldn’t have done it alone.
Of course, they got IRC to help uplift them. IRC can expand its efforts so that more refugees can become more than just the word “refugee”, so that they can live as humans, just the way they are. If we are privileged enough to live happily in wherever we want to, we should ensure that they, a fellow human, get this chance as week. We can reach out to them, learn more about them and together, contribute to the betterment of society. Then we all win, as humanity.
Source:
https://unfpasdyc19.tumblr.com/
https://www.rescue.org/article/refugees-and-their-new-communities-thriving-together
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