what defines a refugee?

this is part 2 of my "refugee series" and i really hope you read this story.

in part 1, i defined the word refugee for you. but i told you it was not a word study, but a people study.

if this is a people study, then what defines a refugee in people terms?
i suggest a refugee is defined by his or her courage, heart, dreams, and the way he or she uses their past to build a future.

many of you have probably passed someone in a local walmart who looks like my friend halima*. she is a young, african, muslim girl in brightly colored clothes including a dress and head scarf. some of you may have wondered her story, but likely you passed her by admiring the color of her scarf at most.

(* i changed her name because i think that's what you're supposed to do with stories like this)

i sat with halima tonight, as she prepared her dinner to break the fast on this first day of ramadan. i asked her to share with me more than she had before about her journey from somalia to the refugee camps.

travel with me back to 1992...
now, if you are my age then in 1992 you were rocking it to MC Hammer (too legit to quit) in your leggings & puff paint shirt with the biggest drama in my life being how big i could make my bangs!

yet, on the other side of the world a war was raging in somalia where the somali bantu had been a minority slave tribe for hundreds of years. at this time in history, the somali somali were killing the somali bantu. halimas father worked as some sort of handy-man and was at the market one day working. on the way home, with his wages in his pocket, he was killed by a somali somali who wanted his money. his 25-year-old wife was told of the news and had to come identify the body, though she was not given the right to take him for burial. halima told me,

if you stayed inside, you had no money
if you went outside, you would be killed

this young 25-year-old widow gathered her three children and with at least a hundred others set out by foot for refuge in kenya.

in case i was not clear, they fled for their lives.

halima shared that the journey was 15 days by foot, if you walked day AND night. if you only walked during the day, it would take 1 month. they walked to the border of somalia and kenya where UN vehicles awaited to help refugees.



during the grueling journey, the refugees ate leaves or killed wild animals for food when they had the chance. if they stopped at night, they became vulnerable prey for the animals themselves. halima shared that many people were killed by animals or died of sickness along the way.

(not to trivialize this, but to possibly give it understandable terms- picture the computer came oregon trail. except no covered wagon, no general store, no currency for trade. just sickness and hunger on a vulnerable journey. and picture it being your real life, certainly not a game)

halima was 4 years old when her family left somalia, her brothers were 6 and 2. she shared that on day 14 of her mother's 15 day journey, her older brother got sick and died. one day away from help. her mother buried him there, on her path toward life and hope.

fast forward from the border of kenya to dadaab refugee camp where halima spent the next 10 years of her life. in this camp the somali bantu were among refugees from ethiopia, sudan and somalia who had all fled for their lives.



did you catch the fact that somali somali's were also there? the camp did not provide safety from the conflict. bantu's were still killed by their enemies. halima shared that police patrolling the camp were easily bribed to look the other way.

the refugees were given tents or sheets of plastic as housing, though they could choose to build their own homes with sticks and mud. in order to build or even make a fire to cook, one would have to leave the camp for nearby forests. these forests were "owned" by the turkana people of kenya who were also known to kill people who came to get firewood and did not pay. pay, you ask? yes, pay. did refugees have money, you ask? no. presents a problem doesn't it?

every 15 days, each family unit would be given rations of corn, beans, flour, oil and some salt. it was not enough for the family to eat everyday for 15 days. we also go back to that little problem of needing firewood, but risking your life to get it. halima's husband added to the story memories of being very hungry and having such small meals, once a day on average.

think of all the meals you ate between 1992 and 2002.
were you ever honestly hungry?

halima's youngest brother died shortly after arriving the refugee camp. she doesn't remember either of her brothers, or the foot flight to kenya but her mother told her these stories as she grew up. halima remembers her aunt having 5 children, and watching all of them die. she remembers death as a constant part of her childhood.

the camp did not have medical care or education to speak of. 10+ years lost to hunger, poverty, boredom, hopelessness.

a glimmer of hope came in 2000 when president Clinton authorized asylum to 20,000 somali bantus. they had been waiting for somewhere to go, somewhere to start a life and finally a door had opened. thousands of bantus were moved over the next couple years to another camp in kenya called kakuma.




to halima, kakuma holds memories of vicious dust storms and still very little food, security, or social systems.

since 2002, many in kakuma have now been granted resident visas to the USA, including halima who came here with a relative in 2004. she hoped in being allowed to come with them, she would have a way to help her mother come faster.

fast forward to today, 2008. halima's mother still lives in kakuma desperately waiting and hoping for resettlement to the US. that's 16 years of life in a refugee camp.

i can't even imagine. 16 years virtually lost.
what did you do for the last 16 years?

she hears from halima by phone occasionally, she must be so proud. 20 year old halima lives here in fort wayne, indiana. she is married to another somali bantu and has two beautiful daughters. she proudly graduated high school this year.



death, war, and hardship is part of a refugee story.
but a refugee is not defined by these things.
a refugee is defined by courage to flee, overcome, and hope.
a refugee is defined by heart to make a difference for the next generation.
a refugee is defined by dreams of education for her children, food for her family, and impact for the world.
a refugee is defined by the way she uses her past of fear to build a future of hope.

that is a refugee.