Recently, the war in Ukraine has continued to attract international attention, and the war in Africa, on the other side, has also continued. For a long time, many people have been threatened with life and safety by conflicts between different places.
Sun Yifei, a Chinese intern at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, is studying international education development at the Columbia University School of Education in New York. Although he could choose to stay in comfort, he chose to go to the front line in Uganda by himself earlier, hoping to help local refugees improve their livelihoods through different projects.
At the age of 25, he also expressed the hope that the rest of his life will continue to contribute to helping refugees.
Sun Yifei (second from right), who has just turned 25 years old, hopes to help local refugees improve their livelihoods through various projects by working as a frontline intern at the UNHCR Uganda Yonbefen Office.
(Pictures provided by respondents)
Uganda, located in East Africa, is the African country that hosts the most refugees. In this one of the world's largest refugee camps, Sun Yifei, who has just turned 25, often visits the refugee camps through his work as a frontline intern at the Uganda Yonbefen Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Refugees, hoping to help them rebuild their lives through different jobs.
According to UNHCR, there are currently 1,573,291 refugees and asylum seekers in Uganda, mostly seeking safety due to conflict in their country of origin, 61% from South Sudan, 29% from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and other nationalities of refugees from Somalia, Burundi and Rwanda, among others.
During his time away from his hometown to work, he not only had to overcome strong homesickness, but also experienced difficulties such as malaria and terrorist threats, but he did not hinder his determination.
(Pictures provided by respondents)
Sun Yifei pointed out that he noticed the plan of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in 2019. After applying to participate, he also went to Uganda to participate in the internship in the summer vacation, but it was mainly around the capital at that time.
Until June last year, he began to work in the Bidibidi refugee camp in Yongbei, the northern region. The living environment there is more primitive than he imagined. During the time he left his hometown to work in Biejing, he not only had to overcome the strong homesickness. He has also experienced difficulties such as malaria and terrorist threats, but he also disagrees, "It is in such an environment that abilities and skills have improved."
With the assistance of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Uganda has implemented a number of refugee policies, such as allowing refugees to use land for housing and agriculture, work and free movement throughout the country.
Sun Yifei's work includes participating in different projects, supporting livelihoods and helping refugees acquire skills for rebuilding, including the construction of fish ponds.
Sun pointed out, "It is better to teach a man how to fish than to give him a fish." He hopes that by letting refugees build fish ponds to obtain food, even if they return to their hometown in the future, they can use the skills they have learned, although he has to withstand the extreme heat every day. On-the-spot inspection of the weather, "But seeing them work hard and dig holes in fish ponds seriously, I feel a little bit every day."
Unforgettable Ugandan top students could not get government scholarships to further their studies
Sun Yifei also revealed that he is helping refugee students apply for higher education and scholarships recently.
One of them was a refugee student with excellent grades. Because of his father's death at an early age, his mother raised eight children in his family alone. Although life was not easy, it did not prevent him from wanting to receive education.
His dream was to study geography in order to return to his community and help tackle issues like drought and deforestation, and during his two years of high school education he became one of the top performing students in Uganda, however, since he is a refugee, The student was not eligible for a scholarship from the Ugandan government.
Sun hopes that through UNHCR, the child can realize his dream of studying in a higher education institution.
Another story that struck him deeply was about a woman the same age as his mother.
During their regular visits, the woman shared that before coming to Uganda, she had seen her nephew killed in front of her in her hometown and feared the same fate would befall her and the rest of her family.
When she came to Uganda, she was alone raising children with traumatic experiences and mental health issues.
Despite being a single refugee mother, the woman became a community leader and a voice for other women and girls in need, and held many leadership roles in livelihood events such as the Bakery Group, "when she showed us this It was very moving when she used her perseverance to use her experience to inspire other women."
According to UNHCR, Uganda currently has 1,573,291 refugees and asylum seekers.
(Photo from the UNHCR website)
Pandemic continues to make support work more difficult
The global impact of the epidemic has also brought challenges to the work of supporting refugees.
Sun Yifei pointed out that under the preventive measures against the new crown pneumonia, the opportunity to contact refugees is limited, and because they cannot meet in person, WiFi is also unstable in the refugee camp, and they have difficulty communicating with some NGO partners.
Fortunately, the local government has lifted the curfew and movement restrictions since the end of January this year, bringing most of the situation back to before the epidemic. "I think now we will be able to provide more support for refugees ... If we can, In the future, I also want to dedicate my life to this field and help refugees around the world.”
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