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Kayma says: “We left because of attacks on our village. Every time the armed men passed through, there were problems. At the beginning when we arrived, the mayor gave us some land on the edge of town where we could stay and we built some huts, which were fine for the dry season, but when the rains came we had to move into the main part of the village.
Struggling for food
“The farmers granted us some land which they weren’t using so we’ve been trying to grow crops there to make a living for ourselves. Because we had to leave our village very quickly, we didn’t have time to bring our seeds with us, so we struggled to find things to plant.
“We got some peanuts and cassava roots but the soil wasn’t good and our peanut harvest was affected so we have to rely on the cassava. When the events occurred we all fled at once and only thought about making sure our families were safe, we didn’t care about our possessions.
“Now I am lucky, my family has a small house in the village. In July, we were given household kits from the International Committee of the Red Cross. This included the material we used to make the shirt I’m wearing now and also clothes for my wife, because we lost clothes when we left our village.
One life
“We use the Red Cross kitchen set every time we cook and eat food, it is a great help to us. The way I feel now, returning to our old village is out of the question. In this world you are only given one life to lose; we escaped death once and we don’t want to risk it again.
“We’ve been properly welcomed here so I would like to stay, we’re certainly not thinking of going back to where we came from. My main concerns now are the everyday struggle to find food for my family, replacing all the things we lost when we fled and educating my children – there is no school in the old village, all the teachers have left so trying to get them an education is a major concern.
“The school year hasn’t started yet but what the mayor has suggested is enrolling the children in the school here when term starts and seeing how things go, in the future we will have to find a more permanent solution.”
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