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It is hard for me to begin to describe what I saw at the Akasia Refugee Camp. For those of you that don't know there were a number of violent xenophobic attacks earlier this year. So for the last four months there have been refugee camps set up all over the country for people who were forced from their homes and businesses mostly in townships. For most of South Africa knowledge of the camps is scarce most people assume that now everything is fine. The camp is rather big with over 1000 people living there and divided into two sections, one for Somalis and the other for everyone else. I was unable to get a true answer for the reason of the segregation. The conditions of the camps are not good; people were forced to build shacks with the trees that surround the camp and blankets that were given by the UN. Just the last week the South African Army decided to remove the few tents that they had given to the camps to use. This left numbers of people sleeping outside for the remainder of the week until the UN finally brought more tents. The camps were also open mostly during the coldest months of the year. I went to the camp with a friend I met through work. Jauffré is from the Democratic Republic of Congo and is an activist for refugee rights. The government of South Africa wants to close the camps down; the plan was for the 30th of September, which hasn't happened. Jauffré wanted to go to the camp to talk to women and children about how they feel about reintegration into South African communities. Just about everyone was fearful. Last week the government took 11 families to start with the reintegration process. Most of them were not allowed to bring the few things that they had and we dropped off where they knew no one. Ten of the 11 families returned to the camps and the other took the R750 ($90) that they were given to restart their lives and returned to their home country of DRC. No real plan has been established as to what to do with everyone during reintegration. The families that were reintegrated were left in abandoned houses with no water, electricity, food, or blankets. It is really not a good situation. Meeting with the women and children of the camp I was humbled by their stories. Everyone is still in high spirits although they are uncertain of what the future will hold for them. I think the person that impacted me the most was a 14 year old girl whom I asked to write her and her family members names (there is a photo of her with her family). As she was writing her name down she told me that she missed holding a pen. That broke my heart, she is unable to attend school and that has been the case for the last three plus months. Although she misses school she said that she would never want to return to her school in the township for fear of her life. My whole experience at the camp was more then I could imagine. I have a very hard time dealing with it since I too am a foreigner and was so welcomed by the community that others fear. I guess more than anything it made me disappointed by the people of a country that I love so much.
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Abdirahman abdirahman Good day. my name Abdirahman. am writing to you from cape town south Africa. i was one of the victims of those attacks and lived in the camp in winter of 2008. my passion is reading and this is how i found your blog and my eyes are teary reading thios and seeing most of this photos. some dead, some living a new life in US cities and some returned home. lets keep in touch and connect to you them. thank you