Live from Buduburam Refugee Camp #3

Live from Buduburam Liberian Refugee Camp - Vermont Trust Funds
for Women's Empowerment

 - A Program of One Step One World -

Dear family & friends,

Joven and I have settled into a nice little routine. He travels during the week while I work on the camp, and we meet up at the coastal village of Kokrobite most weekend.  Kokrobite is a small fishing village on the Atlantic Ocean where many international volunteers, mostly Europeans come to relax on weekends.

Mornings we awaken to the orchestra of West Africa’s coastal birds as long, wooden fishing boats  full of young black boys and a few men head out for the morning trip to drag their nets down into the cloudy waters. Later in the morning they return and each boy has a few fish in his bucket. Strangely, no one is selling fresh grilled fish on the beach, even though there must be 100 young volunteers in town for the weekend. Mostly the fish is dried. Perhaps the fishing is for the purpose of feeding the family and selling fish to tourists. I am not sure. 

This weekend we have rented a small, light filled A-Frame structure.  We still do not have a bathroom or shower, but the outdoor bucket showers are open to the elements and they are clean. We have real toilets instead of filthy outhouses and we flush with buckets of river water.

At one of the schools back on the refugee camp, children drink this dirty river water to stay alive even though they get sick from the bacteria. They are sent home after only a half day due to hunger because the school no longer has the money to feed the children lunch. In fact, the teachers are holding things together by teaching without pay for over four months now.  This school needs about 400.00 US dollars per month to continue operating. There are 112 children.  Principal Toh O. Shadrack is a decent man, who is completely devoted to the children in his school.  He speaks at least two languages, English and French and he is a weekend student at the "University of Cape Coast". 

Besides the lack of drinking water, the air is very toxic due to the daily burning of plastics. Everyone burns plastic waste and some of the most desperate refugee women collect large bags of plastics for recycling. They are paid a few cedis and the plastics are melted down and re-used. Each day Ghana produces 230 tons of plastic waste, mostly empty, small bags of drinking water.

I have research to preform when I return to Mexico in a weeks time. There is a high percentage of Liberian Refugees (mostly women) who have strange spots on their eyes (the spots look like clouds). After many conversations about rather or not the cause is Accra’s (Capital of Ghana) pollution or if it is related to malnutrition, or maybe something that happened during the Liberian conflicts, a common story seemed to emerge. 

When the conflict began in Liberia these women were mostly teenage girls. As they ran to the bush to escape the killings many told stories of itchy eyes and skin rashes. There must be information out there about this - but my internet connection is not good so I will save the research from when I return home. My friends at Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, (WILPF) will know.  

Another common problem is malaria, a curable disease if you have the money for medications.  Last week,  we provided four children and women with medication for malaria. The confusing part was that every single case cost a different amount for medication even though we sent staff with each person to the clinic and they came back with receipts. I have yet to figure this out. Money and Africa is not an easy thing.

I have met the most amazing young boy, Varny. He is 16 and super smart. The first time I met him, he explained many things about life on a refugee camp in great details and with a wonderful vocabulary.  Ghanaian education is costly so if you are lucky enough to have family members that have been resettled and working in another country you may be able to attend school with remittances. If no family members are abroad another option is to find a sponsor. Many people have asked me about scholarships for school. 

If a child excels and tests well after the 12th grade, they can choose from the Ghanaian Universities. This is what Varney hopes to do. He could really use a sponsor to accomplish this and the cost is about 150.00 USD per year. The most expensive part will be the examination cost at the end of his senior year. This is the test that will allow exceptional students to attend good universities. The cost of the test ranges from 100.00 to 200.00 USD. 

One Step One World has given a school scholarship to Chuku (a 24 year old girl), who has volunteered for Vermont Trust Funds for Women's Empowerment for the last nine months. Chuku has been our  receptionist, and she can always be relied upon to show up and help out.  Both of Chuku’s parents are deceased.  She and her brother are the only two surviving members of their family. Thanks to Anna Pudimat and her sorority sisters at Dartmouth College, Chuku is be given another chance, a chance to complete high school. All Liberians deserve another chance.