First Day

A little jet lagged and some slightly green from malaria medication, we nevertheless appreciated the warm welcome from the Bishop of Nairobi after breakfast.

Following a lunch of, in my case, a samosa and masala chips, we had our first introductory meeting with Resettlement Support Center*(RSC) Africa in the afternoon. This was our first encounter on this journey of being given a massive amount of information that was impossible to process all at once. I'm sure each day will hold enough for me to spend months processing. I'll be providing manageable tidbits in this blog and will provide more information or answer questions (if able) by personal request.

We first were given an overview from the State Department PRM, the well-funded refugee bureau of the US. Refugee work still maintains bipartisan support from the U.S. Government. It is more cost effective for the the State Dept. to support other agencies and NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) because they are able to be much more mobile in areas where security is questionable and these agencies have the person power to do the job on the ground.

The RSC Africa has resettled more than 70,000 refugees this fiscal year, most going to the US. 16,000 are from sub-Sahara Africa. The U.S. resettles more refugees than any other country in the world, over 14,000 from sub-Saharan Africa alone in 2014. Should that number astound you, in perspective only 1% of refugees are actually resettled in the world. There are over 585,000 refugees in Kenya alone, mostly Somali and South Sudanese.

Here one may be asking what the difference is between a refugee and an immigrant. The 1951 Refugee Convention spells out that a refugee is someone who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country." (UNHCR) An immigrant, however, is simply defined as one who moves to another country. Obviously, some distinction in the matter is choosing to do so while not under threat.

It was clear to us the incredible amount of work this organization is doing efficiently in the resettlement of persons, but most impressive was the attitude and deep commitment to helping displaced persons at every level. You can see the joy of the Director of RSC Africa who was warm, vibrant, and very dedicated to the work of RSC Africa and to his staff.

 

*RSC Africa is part of Church World Service (CWS) of which The Episcopal Church is a member.

 

 

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