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CWS JVA in Kenya joins Nairobi's World Refugee Day celebration
Part of World Refugee Day 2006 celebrations in Nairobi, the CWS JVA's Children's Fun Day featured face painters, a magician, a Bouncing Castle, and an acrobatic troupe. The theme of the day was plainly marked on both the shirts and the smiles.
Photo: JVA/Kenya
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World Refugee Day is a chance for refugees throughout the globe to celebrate together their similarities and their differences. As Veronica, a refugee from Sudan and a student at the Sud Academy in Nairobi, Kenya, said, "Today we get to celebrate our culture and all the other refugees get to celebrate their cultures too."
"Hope" was the global theme for World Refugee Day 2006, officially June 20 and observed on or near that date, and that theme was lifted up in observances across the Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Program network.
This year, for the first time ever, the CWS-administered Joint Voluntary Agency in Kenya participated in the annual World Refugee Day celebration in Nairobi. Through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. State Department, the JVA processes the cases of all refugees in Eastern and Southern Africa accepted for resettlement in the United States.
As the sole sponsor of the Children's Fun Day, JVA hired facepainters, a magician, a Bouncing Castle, and -- a favorite among both children and adults alike -- an acrobatic troupe from the KenKanna Entertainment Group.
As Ann Marie Winter, the JVA Representative, described it, the agency's mission is a perfect fit for a refugee festival. "We work so that refugees can find new homes safe from persecution and violence. I am proud to recognize that each of us at JVA is doing just that."
Speaking to the 2006 theme of "hope," Philip Deng, a "Lost Boy" from Sudan and a current student in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Nairobi, said hope is a crucial message for refugees to hear.
"People don't put a lot of hope in us, but it is very important because hope makes us go on," he said. "If you lose hope you lose your way in life."
Emmanuel Nyabera, the Public Information Officer for UNHCR in Kenya, explained that refugees have several sources of hope. He referred specifically to the three durable solutions -- repatriation, local integration, and resettlement. Resettlement, he said, is particularly important for some refugees because it is "an opportunity they are not able to get in either their home country or their first country of asylum."
Befitting Kenya's large and international refugee population, groups from Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan participated in the celebration. UNHCR was the primary sponsor, supported by JVA and other partners such as the International Rescue Committee, GTZ, Lutheran World Federation, and Windle Trust.
 The JVA participated in Nairobi's World Refugee Day celebrations, which began with a march along one of the city's main downtown streets. Photo: JVA/Kenya
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The day began with a march along one of the city's main downtown streets to Central Park. The Lang'ata Boys Band of Kenya led the procession.
At the park, spectators were treated to a morning of performances by several student refugee groups. Sudanese youth from the Sud Academy sang and danced in both English and their native Didinga. Somali and Ethiopian classmates from Saint Brigid's School recited poetry, including one original poem by the students themselves. And Ethiopian primary school students from the Saphalo School performed a skit about the life of a refugee.
In addition, the Kenya Performing Arts Group represented the host country with an energetic narrated dance that told a lively and humorous story about village life in Africa.
When not performing, the students were there for the simple pleasure of a day in the park. One young refugee from Sudan said he was there "just having fun because UNHCR invited me."
While the morning was for the children, the highlight of the afternoon was a speech by Mr. Peter Kisombe from the Ministry of Immigration and Registration of Persons for the Government of Kenya. Afternoon performers included refugee cultural groups from Burundi, Sudan, and Rwanda. Towards the end of the day, awards were given to refugee students "who have excelled in education."
For a day designed to celebrate the hopes of refugees, perhaps the most appropriate remark was made by the Somali and Ethiopian students of Saint Brigid's School.
Speaking not only to the gathered audience but to refugees throughout the world, one of their poems ended with these words of encouragement: "Let us make hope our refuge."
Written by Martin Anderson, JVA NBO Caseworker
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