Jesuit Refugee Service - UK
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Jesuit Refugee Service - UK |
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Working with JRS in Tanzania Radio Kwizera is a community radio established in 1995 by Jesuit Refugee Service at the time there was a large influx of Rwandans into Tanzania. Following a mass repatriation of the Rwandans refugees in 1996, Radio Kwizera carried on serving the growing Burudian refugee population and the local community. Radio Kwizera broadcasts a wide range of services to both refugees and the local population, providing accurate and unbiased information and news for 14 hours a day in Kirundi and Kiswahili and partly in English and French. It is almost the only media available in a very remote part of Tanzania. Radio Kwizera tries to give hope of a future to the refugees through a wide schedule including, for example, news bulletins, vocational training, cultural programs, school teaching, peace and reconciliation programs, and the rights of the refugees. In that context what did it mean being a volunteer? Concretely my mission was to settle a radio booster 250 km away from the main radio station in order to reach more refugees and give more hope. I had the fantastic mission to recruit a team of journalists and logistical staff, to build a radio station, to develop public relations with the local government, NGOs, UN agencies and to consolidate our relationship with the refugee community so that they get involved with the radio not only as listeners but also as active participants. But being a volunteer with JRS was much more than this work. It was being able to see people, Venantia, Barnabe, Hilaire…, behind the word “refugee” or “ration card”. It was being able to listen to a 50 year old man telling of his shame of having to ask for permission, like his children, to go outside the camp. It was being able to say “yes” to an invitation for lunch in a refugee camp despite their lack of food. It was facing the Police who accused us of creating trouble after broadcasting a series of programs on the rights of refugees. I am now back in Europe. I choose to live in England and work here, as I am French. Nobody asked me for anything… a refugee could not! Marine Bernier Marine was a volunteer for 2 years at the Radio Kwizera project
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