by Alec Dowe
Mazoe River Bridge refugee camp, has for the past decade, provided sanctuary to many people who the war in Mozambique.
The camp is located in the north-west of Zimbabwe, about 70 kilo metres from the Mozambican frontier and is one of the largest refugee camps in Zimbabwe.
Home to more than 20 000 Mozambican refugees, the majority of whom are elderly women and children, the camp was established in September 1984 by a group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Its administration was later transferred to the government, although NGOs have continued to support it.
A trip to the camp by about 20 church members from English-speaking African countries was a programme of action for a seminar on Church Social Action on Behalf of Refugees, Migrants, and
Internally Displaced Persons held in Harare early this year. The seminar was organized by the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC).
The camp is divided into 19 villages and each village has a sub-committee which handles the distribution of daily food rations, identifying areas where supplementary feeding is required and solving trivial disputes, among other things. Theft and other serious crimes are handled by police.
Health and education needs for refugees are being provided for by the respective ministries of Health and Child Welfare, and Education and Culture, while NGOs cater for vocational training.
The Health and Child Welfare ministry built a primary health-care centre, provides drugs and doctors, transport, monitors and combat epidemics. Other tasks include identifying malnutrition cases and teaching mothers on the importance of breast feeding their toddlers.
Midwives play an important role in the camp. According to the camp administrator, Ngonidzashe Jakaza, 86% of births delivered at home have no complications. This has reduced the expected influx to the only clinic in the camp which serves both refugees and locals.
The Ministry of Education and Culture plays a significant role in teaching Mozambican refugees. The Mozambican syllabus is used to teach the refugees, while English is taught as a third language. The 46 teachers available are Mozambican volunteers who are trained locally. They are not on salary, but from free training as well as from acquiring experience.
Some of the volunteers will remain in Zimbabwe for further training that will enable them to teach in Mozambique when they finally repatriate.
The war fought by the Mozambican National Resistance (MNR or Renamo) led to the destruction of many schools and abduction of teachers in some parts of Mozambique. Rebuilding schools and the education system in those affected areas, is one of the most pressing tasks in a post-civil war era, pointed out Jakaza.
Vocational training is offered to refugees in the camp and is being sponsored by the Norwegian Development Agency. Students are being trained in carpentry, brick-laying, black-smithing, agriculture and dressmaking.
The vocational training programme has proved to be useful as graduates supplement their income by using the acquired skills. The market is among refugees themselves — inter-trade is common — and sometimes goods are sold to visitors or to the local community.
The implementation of the acquired agricultural skills is not possible due to the unavailability of adequate land to the refugees. The surrounding environment has been damaged due to high population density.
This has prompted NGOs to introduce afforestation programmes in which refugees actively participate.
Seventeen years of civil war and destabilization, displaced 3.5 million people internally and forced another two million to seek refuge in neighbouring countries.
Zimbabwe has five refugee camps, and was host to 126 800 refugees, according to UNHCR statistics published in February 1994.
The repatriation programme has started and is not compulsory.
The camp authorities say that when the programme is completed, should anyone return, they will not be awarded refugee status. The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) representatives are issued with a list of names of those repatriated by camp authorities and they will in turn hand over the list to Mozambican authorities.
A number of NGOs are engaged in the distribution of equipment such as wheelbarrows, hoes, axes, harrows and other basic farming implements.
Since the repatriation exercise began on 12 June 1993, over 130 000 Mozambican refugees have returned home from neighbouring countries, Zimbabwe is repatriating between 1 600 and 1 900 Mozambican refugees per week. About 10 000 refugees are expected to have left Mazoe River Bridge Refugee Camp by the end of June 1994, explained Jakaza.
At the time of the visit to the camp, 700 refugees were being cleared by the authorities and some were already loading their belongings on the UNHCR trucks in preparation for their departure.
Many people wondered where the refugees were going to settle, whether they would be reunited with their relatives and friends back home, if the community would accept and welcome them, if they would find jobs to implement their acquired vocational skills or if they would find their way back into Zimbabwe.
No one had an answer to these questions. But if one needed any, they could just look at the faces of those who were departing and those remaining behind, and see how much they meant to each other and perhaps the kind of community relationship they had cherished in the past ten years as refugees. (SARDC)
