Voices from Minova camp

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Media contacts

Rachel Wolff 253.394.2214

Casey Calamusa 206.310.5476

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World Vision distributes family kits to 3,000 families in Minova camp — a new camp that built up after violence flared in September. The family kits include materials like blankets, plastic sheeting, sleeping mats, soap, cooking equipment, and mosquito nets.

The displacement camp is located in a hilly and rainy area not very conducive for settlement. Even though there is currently no armed conflict nearby, people are frequently exposed to looting and harassment by the militia.

The area is rainy for most of the year and the area is dependent on subsistence agriculture and livestock rearing. At present, most families depend on external aid and daily paid jobs in host communities, the wage often as low as 500CF.

Until now, there has been no proper shelter in the camp. Families live in small banana leaf huts. Parents and children sleep cramped under the roof, with complete lack of privacy.

Fuhara Nameka, 25-years-old

She fled her home in October when rebels attacked her home village — Kabalekasha — 8kms away.

“When we heard to gun shots, we ran but my husband was shot in the head and I lost my three children.

“I ran here with my baby through the bush. We came with nothing, no shelter or possessions.

“My baby girl is called Devota Kanane, she is seven-months-old.

“My three children are dead. After we scattered, people saw their bodies.

They were three, four and six-years-old. One died of pneumonia, the other of diarrhoea, and I don’t know what happened to my youngest.

“Life is hard and complicated. Everything is difficult.”

When asked what is the future: “This depends on God, we need peace.

“Life before was very good, my baby daughter was in good health but now she is always sick. I am worried for her life.

“I really miss my husband – if he was here, he could help provide food and help with the children. I constructed my shelter by myself.

“The plastic sheeting will help protect me and my baby from the rain, the blankets will keep us warm.”

Byamungau Sembegwa, eight-years-old

Sembegwa doesn’t know where his parents are. “ I don’t know if they are alive or dead,” he said. He believes they are still in his village where he last saw them before he fled.

“I was farming with my cousins in the field. When we returned home, we found everyone had gone. People told us to run. We heard gunshots and heard they were killing people.

“I came here with my uncles and cousins. We met soldiers in the forest who beat us and stole all of our things — pots, plates and a bag of flour.

“I earn money from a local businessman who is building a house. I put grass on the roof. I learnt how to do this when I was making a hut for my hens in my village. I earn 300CF for three days work.

“I have started going to school near here. My uncle pays for me to attend. French is my favourite subject. I want to be a doctor when I’m older.

“I don’t know when I will go home but one day I will marry and have a farm.”