 |
| Home away from home: Al-Hajj Saboor Arta (center) was once a refugee himself. Now, he offers his land to some 160 families of Darfuri refugees,
like the four men next to him. Melanie Stetson Freeman – staff   A Chadian farmer's gift |
Flooded with refugees, a farmer shares land
A Chadian farmer's gift provides a chance at self-sufficiency for Darfuri refugees.
By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the July 12, 2007 edition
Page 1 of 3
Iriba, Chad - When Darfuri refugees started streaming across the border into Chad four years ago, fleeing a civil war that has killed 200,000 and displaced 2.5 million, many Chadians opened their arms in welcome.
Al-Hajj Saboor Arta Bakit took one step further. He gave the refugees some of his land to raise their own crops. This step has earned him some local respect, some derision, and three separate stints in the local jail. But Mr. Bakit says he was only acting on the urging of his heart.
"When the refugees arrived here, they didn't have clothes, didn't have shoes, they were hungry, and when I saw them, I cried," says Bakit, brushing away dry animal dung from a shady spot under an acacia tree before sitting down. "I don't have money to give, but I do have lots of land. I don't want money for it, I don't want thanks from government. I just want thanks from God."
Not only does Bakit's gift provide 160 Sudanese families with the chance to become self-sufficient by growing their own food, it also builds a crucial bridge between Chadians and Sudanese refugees whose welcome may be wearing thin. Despite sharing the same languages, the same religion, and in some cases the same relatives, the addition of some 57,000 refugees to the local population of 60,000 has doubled the burden on water and land resources.
With the Darfur crisis going into its fifth year with no signs of resolution, Emmanuel Uwurukundo, head of operations for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in this eastern Chadian border town says that Bakit's actions could be a kind of model for a longer-term solution to ease tensions between local people and refugees.
"The donor nations will never continue to fund these programs indefinitely, so making the refugees more self-reliant means that refugees should have a kind of dignity. Refugees are not beggars," says Mr. Uwurukundo. "It's important that we find ways to put together the local population with refugees to work together and share resources."
Bridges between locals and refugees
Aid officials like Uwurukundo admit that few farmers will emulate Bakit in giving away their land. But they hope that Bakit and Sudanese refugees will be able to encourage local farmers to find other ways to integrate Sudanese farmers into the local economy, with the Sudanese refugees sharing their skills, and Chadians sharing some of their land.
RSS feed
