BLOG #9 – What do you do?

A question I've received a lot is: so, what do you do? Well, since I've heard this question a few times in the last few weeks, I think more than explaining things like the water situation here, it would be best to try to explain what I do and who I work with. So, the following is a very brief description of UNHCR, an explanation of how FORGE works with UNHCR in refugee camps and a list of the projects that FORGE is in charge of in Mwange.

- UNHCR is in charge of the safety of refugees from all over the world. Their main jobs (at least the main ones that affect me) are: to help refugees safely find their way to refugee camps, set up refugee camps that adequately meeting the needs of the refugees (health, education, food, shelter, law, etc.) and to successfully repatriate or resettle refugees to a safe place when they are ready to go. UNHCR's job is incredibly complicated, but that's it in brief.

- OP/IP's work underneath and with UNHCR to help them meet the refugees needs inside the camps and on their return home.
o OP (Operation Partner) means the organization is a partner of UNHCR that helps UNHCR meet their needs but is not funded by UNHCR and is thus organized separately from UNHCR – FORGE is an OP
o IP (Implementing Partner) means this organization signs an implementing agreement and thus receives funding from UNHCR. The following are the IPs that I work with on a daily basis and a brief description of what they do:
o HODI – Does community service, including education, public safety, and helping those in need in the community (these people are referred to as vulnerables)
o World Vision – Builds everything, including setting up all the farms, planting trees, and keeping animals in control
o WFP – Provides all the food given to the refugees (WFP promises to give food that is natural in the refugees home country, but this doesn't always happen and thus produces a ton of problems for WFP
o Red Cross – Distributes the food that WFP provides and deals with all medical problems in the camp. Medicine is technically supposed to be free, but they run out all the time. So, a lot of refugees bring drugs in from outside the camp (legally and illegally) to sell them at their pharmacies when the Red Cross is out.
o MHA – Keeps the census data on the camp, including ration cards for food, educational certificates, and birth/death certificates.

- Project managers – This is the title for the head people/managers who work for an IP or OP on the ground. This is my job title for FORGE.


The following is a list of FORGE projects in Mwange Refugee Camp. The projects with a star next to them are the projects that I am in charge of and for which I am the head contact person for.

**We have a great library called the Bibliotheque Alfajiri that has groups for children and storytelling, programs to increase the amount of women who use the library and general library usage seminars. Books are in English, Swahili, French, and Bemba (local Zambian language).

We have a computer lab with 10 computers, a printer and scanner and a great teacher who has taught many of the refugees basic computer skills. His assistants know more about computers than I do!

**A Women's Center that covers:
o General women's health through seminars and sensitizations.
o Maternal health, which teaches pregnant women about pregnancy and the best ways for them to take care of themselves and their newborns. A component of this class also teaches the pregnant women how to knit.
o Women's rights and empowerment classes for women and for men.

**A Peace Club that teaches people about working through conflicts and mediation.

**A Guitar program that has almost 150 students and only 4 guitars, but they figure it out and have accomplished a lot.

**A Piano program that has a 13 year old teacher who is incredibly talented. I'm working with them on songs to sing with the choirs in the churches. (I've joined the Swahili church choir!)

**A women's agricultural cooperative that uses money granted to them to farm and sell their surplus in the market to help them make money.

A Children's center that does sports and arts for children.

**FACE AIDS, which is pretty different than FACE AIDS in America because here it is a huge organization devoted to teaching people about AIDS and how to prevent AIDS among the refugees and among people in surrounding communities.

A writing group to teach people about creative writing.

A newspaper that publishes once a month.

A Hip Hop group that has some pretty amazing performances.

A poetry group that does spoken word poetry.

**A pen pal program that facilitates letters being written back and forth between refugee students and schools in the US.

A wheelchair program that has a ton of wheelchairs for those in need.

A program to educate refugees about repatriation, about the role that UNHCR plays in repatriation and about what life will be like when they return to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

And a general health education program that has traveling educators that go to different sections throughout the Camp to teach them about important health issues.


Hopefully that helps clear things up a little. Email anytime if you have questions about FORGE or the work I'm doing. I hope all is well!

xoxo