UN assisted refugees in Tanzania

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs(OCHA) reported in 31 Oct 2004 the numbers of refugees in Tanzania along the Burundi border as approx. 250,000 Burundians, plus more from DRC and Rwanda. We will be visiting one of the camps in Kigoma region. We'll also visit a camp in Tabora region, but that hasn't been included in these figures.

BBC NEWS Last rebels make peace in Burundi

Burundi's president and the head of the only rebel group still outside the peace process have reached agreement.....A constitution designed to share power between Hutus and Tutsis was approved in a referendum earlier this year and parliamentary and presidential elections are scheduled for coming months.

CMS News - Desperation of forgotten refugees

"Rema Ministries visit the camps to teach people about issues like HIV/AIDS, trauma counselling and reconciliation. 'We need to prepare them to face the challenges ahead,' Francois says. 'Refugees will meet people who killed their relatives and there has to be a roadmap for forgiveness.' Some refugees will also be killers themselves and there is significant anti-refugee feeling in Burundi itself, according to Alison. 'People want to know, will there be justice?'"

The Team

For the first time yesterday the full team met up together for a planning meeting. From the back left: Phil, Pete,
Arlene, Wendy, Sally, Ruth
Chrissie

African Proverbs, Sayings and Stories

Africa has a lot of stories, sayings and proverbs. some are similar from country to country, some make absolutely no sense at all unless you learn a bit about the society it came from. Such as 'Ahari amahoro umuhoro uramwa.' (Rundi) or in English 'Where there is peace, a billhook (sickle) can be used to shave your beard or cut your hair.' Basically means 'where there is peace, everything is possible.'

The Afriprov.org site is a collection from across the continent, including some from Burundi. They are planning to publish a book of Burundi/ Kirundi proverbs but it's still in development.

African Proverbs, Sayings and Stories

Map of Tanzania, Kenya and Burundi

Kirundi for Tourists, courtesy of Eric.

Kirundi for Tourists1

BBC Country profile: Burundi

BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Country profiles | Country profile: Burundi

The Start

The purpose of this blog is to follow preparations and visit to REMA in Kenya and Tanzania.

REMA is a Burundian (Kirundi) word that means to comfort, console, affirm, strenghen. The organisation consists of about 6 Burundians who work with Burundian refugees. There are about 500,000 refugees from Burundi living in Kenya and Tanzania, most are in refugee camps, some are recognised by the UN, some are not.

A team of us will be going out to visit some of the projects and the refugee camps in June and July 2005.

I'll add more information about Burundi, the language, history, the problems, and an idea about what we'll be doing as part of our visit. Hopefully I should be able to do some posts from Kenya and Tanzania.