Today, we're visiting another place where ARC works in Rwanda, the newest refugee camp in the country - Mahama Refugee Camp. More than 50,000 Burundian refugees live in the camp where ARC provides health care and other services. When we asked our Mahama team - what would you do with $500 to take better care of yourselves and your fellow team members - they were excited. It was something they had actually been thinking about but didn't have the resources to make happen. Mahama Camp was setup in 2015 but is still considered an emergency situation. With a semi-arid climate, permanent hot weather and a very stressful context, staff need to decompress. And the Mahama team had hoped to do so together every Thursday at a sports facility. But they quickly learned the distance from Mahama to a sports facility was too long - they ended up spending all their time in transit and no time working out, playing sports together and destressing. So when they heard they might have $500 to … [Read more...] about A Little Gym
Changemakers365
A Safety Net
We are in Rwanda again, this time visiting the ARC team at Nyabiheke Refugee Camp in eastern Rwanda. We asked our teams - who do extremely challenging work with some of the world's most vulnerable people - what could you do with $500 to take better care of yourself and your team members. The team at Nyabiheke already had their idea. In fact, they've been doing it since 2013. Staff participate in what they call their Cadenya Association, giving just under $2 per month. So far, since the Cadenya began they've collected roughly $1,400. But that money doesn't sit in the association treasury. The Cadenya is meant to be a mini- safety net for Nyabiheke staff. "The Cadenya's main purpose is to provide mutual solidarity support in times of sadness or joy," said Dr. Jean-Nepo Hakizamungu, current President of the Cadenya Association. "At these times, the Cadenya hands a member 50,000 Rwandan Francs (or $60)" to help them through this difficult time or celebrate a joyous occasion. … [Read more...] about A Safety Net
Sports to Destress
Our teams around the world work in challenging environments. They work in places that are or have recently experienced violent conflict or in other places that are receiving refugees fleeing violence. The work is often challenging and very heavy. So, we asked our teams around the world to come up with some ideas - $500 or less - about how to better care for themselves and for their fellow team members. The team at Kiziba Refugee Camp (above) in Rwanda loves to get out and get active, but they often don't have the time or the place to go and play. So the team's idea was to get an annual subscription to a sports facility not too far from the camp. "This place has all kinds of sports where all the staff will meet once a month and do the sport of their choice," said team member Zuberi Ugirashebuja. "We hope it will make staff members become more sociable and forget for a moment their challenges at work." On their first visit to the Moriah Hill facility, the staff stretched … [Read more...] about Sports to Destress
Coming to Dinner
After two days of design workshops and weeks of research and talking with members of the community, our partners at Communitere had a good idea of what they needed for their mobile resource center. And they found just the vehicle they needed in Germany. So it was time for a good old-fashioned roadtrip to bring the resource center from Germany to Greece. The team at Communitere stopped at European cities all along the route, and in each place they met with makers who wanted to add something to the resource center. They also heard from so many people who wanted to do something together with refugees in their own communities. Having heard about an AirBnB Welcome Party initiative to encourage communities everywhere to welcome refugees into their new homes with a party or event, Communitere and and a group of makers decided to do the doable and host their own Welcome Dinner in Vienna, Austria. They worked with the OPENmarx collective - a design and building studio at the Faculty of … [Read more...] about Coming to Dinner
Beginning to Take Shape
On Day 215, the Communitere team is continuing their work to engage and understand the community in Greece they're seeking to serve - refugee families, Greeks hit hard by the economic crisis, and grassroots local organizations focused on helping. One of Communitere's core beliefs is that in order to create a valuable resource that can make change for a community, that community must be engaged from the very beginning. So, today they're hosting their second design workshop with the refugee and host community in Thessaloniki, Greece. Communitere's first workshop focused on revealing community needs and what could be done to help. At today's second workshop they got more specific about the mobile resource center (MRC) they are trying to design for the community to use - what should the MRCs be, what should be in them and how could they reach the largest number of people possible. Again they invited local Greeks, refugees and grassroots local organizations to help shape the final … [Read more...] about Beginning to Take Shape
Introducing Communitere
In the last couple of years, since refugees began fleeing to Europe in large numbers, American Refugee Committee has been looking for ways to help. We're proud to say we've recently partnered with Communitere to create a dynamic and sustainable recovery response in Greece. Communitere engages communities in a kind of DIY humanitarian relief. They create opportunities for communities to think about and plan for their own futures, and then they help them choose from a variety of tools and models that will help them get where they want to go. And one of the places they can choose from these tools is what Communitere calls a "Resource Center". The folks at Communitere are anxious to get a Mobile Resource Center (MRC) up and running for refugees in Greece to use, but they also recognize that the resource center won't be valuable to the community unless they are a part of shaping it. So, on Day 214, our partners at Communitere did the doable and got a group of people together to … [Read more...] about Introducing Communitere
Hitting the Books
On June 20, members of the Refugee Olympic team joined us as our special guests at the World Refugee Day 5k in Nakivale Refugee Settlement. The team ran alongside refugees from Nakivale, and Rose and Kadar from the team actually won the women's and men's divisions, respectively. It was at times an emotional visit for the refugee Olympians. Visiting schools in Nakivale brought them back to their own childhoods in refugee camps. But they left a message with young people to always keep reaching for what you want and never give up. While we were getting to know the Olympians, we learned that the center where they train in Kenya needed a few things. Their champions, the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation, had seen promise in the refugee athletes and brought them each to Nairobi. There they train together and live together. One of the foundation's most critical goals for these young hopefuls is to make sure they get an education. Many haven't been to school in years. The … [Read more...] about Hitting the Books
Keeping Things Flowing
Daily doses of change involves a lot of listening – to the needs of refugees, host communities, even our own staff. And while we finished up sports projects in Nakivale Settlement, we tapped into the expertise of our team, who are on the ground every day listening to the needs in the communities they serve. Our teams are experts in listening. That's what our Kuja Kuja program is all about. Kuja Kuja is a system to improve customer satisfaction amongst refugees around the world. And one of the regular pieces of feedback received is about access to fetching water. Nakivale is home to over 100,000 people, all of whom collect water at water points throughout the settlement. These water pumps rely on generators to move water from reservoirs to water points in the community. If the equipment breaks down or becomes clogged, the water pumps stop working. Without the pumps, people are unable to get water to drink, cook, or clean. "We need a solution to fix the generators quickly" … [Read more...] about Keeping Things Flowing
On Solid Ground
If futbol is the everyday sport in Nakivale, basketball is the sport most overlooked because of lack of decent play spaces. Every basketball team we met expressed concern with uneven ground, the dirt and gravel covering the courts, and even disruption of play as cars, motos or even cattle move across. Estelle from the women’s basketball team explains the dangers: “Truly we have a really bad court. Sometimes we slip, we fall. Cars and motos drive through the court while we’re playing.” So on Day 211, we resolved to do something about it. We met with Alex and other engineers from the Wakati Foundation, all who are refugees themselves. They presented a budget to resurface the court near ARC’s office in Base Camp. “We have many skills in our country as engineers” says Alex, a big smile on his face as Wakati Foundation signed the contract for the resurfacing. “We work as a community. It’s our job to give back.” They started the work right away, bringing in large rocks, … [Read more...] about On Solid Ground
A Hand on the Ball
Handball is not a well-known sport in the US. Described as a mix between soccer and basketball, it was codified in Germany and is popular in Europe. But as we have discovered in Nakivale Settlement over the past few weeks, it is very, very popular in Uganda. It is so popular that today’s idea – See Jane Play Handball – was the highest funded idea of all the teams running in the World Refugee Day 5K. We asked Jane why the handball team is so important. “Handball is a good sport because anyone can play it” she says. “Men, women, boys and girls. I’d like to introduce the sport to the people in my neighborhood.” She wasn’t asking for much – just some equipment to get a team or two started. But as we’ve seen on many occasions, once someone gets a good idea, the plan snowballs into something bigger – and better. We started off by getting Jane the equipment she needed – some team jerseys, handballs in different sizes for youth and adult teams, and a coach uniform for Jane herself. … [Read more...] about A Hand on the Ball