Documenting Refugees for peace in DRCongo

Report on how the already donation collected from GlobalGiving will bring change in the lives of refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo,

Protection of refugees in DRCongo

For us the protection passes through the identification of each refugee, putting in place settings where these refugees should reside, providing them with humanitarian relief aid and promoting durable solutions to refugees.

With the money so far raised, we are able to provide our papers to 500 refugee household in Goma and its surroundings, which show that they are asylum seekers known by our offices. These papers do reduce threats of being arbitrary arrested as illegal migrants, of being considered as spies and as being considered by local communities as people deployed by Rwanda in order to occupy their lands in North Kivu.

This also will help to visit four (4) local leaders in Goma and discuss with them issues of refugees in their entities, this will be mainly in Mugunga, Ndosho, Kyeshero and Lac-Vert which highly hosted by refugees.

So as per now we hope that at least 500 refugees will be safe in one way or the other, and some of their problems will be reduced, but we need to do more to ensure that all are safe in North Kivu and in DRCongo.

Background information

With wars in the Great Lakes Region since 1960, the Democratic Republic of Congo started hosting refugees from Rwanda and Burundi among other nations. They have lived in DRCongo and settled in various places where they are not identified, and not granted humanitarian relief aid, and yet they do not own the land. Over the years they have lived in misery and destitutions. Despite the presence of UNHCR and other humanitarian relief agencies, still no attention has been put on the situation of these refugees who continue to be left alone sinking into misery. From the period of 1990 up to 1994 which culminated to the genocide in Rwanda, pushed millions in DRCongo where they have been since then abandoned to themselves and exposed to all abuses.

The number of refugees in DRCongo is unknown, their places of residences are not recognized officially and they do not have access to humanitarian relief aid. Goma for example we estimate has more than 30,000 refugees among them only 5,000 were identified by UNHCR/CNR and only 2,500 have refugee identification documents, and only around 150 to 200 refugees have access to a certain form of humanitarian relief aid mainly primary education for their children and basic medical treatment offered by UNHCR partners.

Thanks

Jean Pascal Mugaruka/ Coordinator