Uganda Projects – Mbale and Kampala
By Pat Reese
June 20 was the fifth annual World Refugee Day. It is a day,
celebrated each year, to pay tribute to the spirit of refugees and
displaced people. The theme of the 2006 celebration was “Keep-
ing the Flame of Hope Alive.” In a message by the President of
the United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations
Headquarters in New York, Mr. Jan Eliasson said, “…obser-
vances are taking place in cities and towns, in refugee camps and
in numerous settlements in every continent, to pay tribute to refu-
gees and displaced people. This is an opportunity for the world
not only to honor their courage and determination, but also to
send a clear message that their plight has not been forgotten.”
Jeff Koinange, Senior Africa Correspondent for CNN has
spent several years covering events in Africa and following the
lives of refugees. Following are some of his reflections on
World Refugee Day in an article titled, “No End in Sight for Af-
rica’s Suffering Masses.”
“Just imagine for a moment
that everything you own—from
your hard-earned money to your
home to your car to little memen-
tos like pictures on the wall—has
just been taken from you by a
group of people who don’t like the
way you look or the shade of your
skin or the shape of your nose. Ev-
erything gone except, perhaps, the
clothes on your back.
“You’ve been forced to flee,
probably separated from your fam-
ily and end up on the run with a
bunch of people you’ve never met,
but with whom you now share a common goal—staying alive.
“Many hours or even days later, you arrive at a shelter run
by an international nongovernmental organization.
“You’re tired, exhausted, sick to your stomach and scared
to death. You end up sharing a tent with 40 to 60 other strangers
where your bathroom, bedroom and kitchen combined have all
been reduced to little more than the size of a normal bed.
“And this will be your home for the next few months, per-
haps years, and in some cases, decades. This is what it’s like for
a person fleeing persecution, war, civil strife, genocide.
“Imagine living like this for years if not decades, raising
your family in a refugee camp because you can’t go home. Even
if you do manage to go home, you learn someone else has taken
over your land, your home, your life.”
The article goes on to tell stories of horror from around Africa.
He mentions Joseph Kony and the atrocities he has committed
against thousands of innocent children. Koinange ends his article
with the comments, “In all of my journalistic travels, I can’t help but
see the images of Africa’s helpless and hopeless, and I can’t help but
think about what it is that drives man’s inhumanity… There seems
no end in sight for the agony of Africa’s suffering masses.”
Mr. Eliasson ended his World Refugee Day speech with
these words. “Let today, therefore, be an opportunity to renew
our collective commitment as an international community to do
everything possible to address the root causes of displacement.
This will be the best way to honour the uprooted and to contrib-
ute to keeping alive their courage and hope.”
Several of the widows and orphans that we are caring for in
Uganda are refugees who fled their homes to try to find a safer
place to live. As Christians, we do what we can to “Keep the
Flame of Hope Alive” by sharing the good news of Jesus’ love
and by relieving their physical suffering.
One of our widows in particular has had a very tragic his-
tory of being displaced by tribal warfare. Felista Kandenze is a
Rwandan, born in 1957. Her early life was peaceful, being mar-
ried in 1974 and giving birth to six children. However, in 1994
the genocide in Rwanda began, in which nearly 1,000,000 peo-
ple were murdered. This warfare was between the Hutus and
the Tutsis, inflamed by a corrupt
government and ignored by the rest
of the world.
During this period, the Hutus
were ordered to kill Tutsis, even if it
meant killing one's own wife and
children. If a Hutu refused, he or
she would be executed. Felista and
her family were Hutu, but as Chris-
tians they could not follow these or-
ders. They set out to escape to the
Democratic Republic of Congo,
where they stayed with other refu-
gees. While staying in this camp, a
plague of sorts swept through the
population, killing Felista's husband
and three of her children. She herself became ill and although she
recovered, suffers from fatigue and chronic headaches.
Before long, the situation worsened for the refugees and they
were driven out of the Congo back to Rwanda. Felista's fif-
teen-year-old daughter had to be married off to a much older man
so the family could use her dowry to survive. After a time, the
daughter heard that refugees were fleeingto Uganda where the liv-
ing conditions were much better. She fled to Uganda and found
work as a housemaid. Soon after, Felista's son followed. After
about six months, he sent a secret message to Felista through a
messenger and she followed as well, carrying the two grandchil-
dren in her care with her, to begin life once again as a refugee, this
time in Uganda. It is there that Pastor Musungu's wife, Olivier, dis-
covered this struggling widow and has since tried to help her with
whatever extrawe can send. She reports that Felista's hut is in such
bad condition that she and her family stay under a tree during the
rains, as they have no money to repair the roof.
Our hope is that an American, European or Australian fam-
ily will “adopt” Felista and her three grandchildren so that fi-
nally she will no longer be a refugee. We would pray that she
could live out the rest of her life with an adequate shelter, food
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Felista Kandenze with her three grandchildren. The two
children on the right belong to Pastor Musungu.
