Hope on the Horizon
When peace shatters, refugees of poverty and politics need decent housing more than ever.

by Leigh Powell and Rebekah Daniel

A Worldwide Overview

You Can Help

IDPs: Who Are They?

Gardens surround Kevin Mavhunga's Habitat house. He has a large crop of cabbage that will feed not only him, but also many of his neighbors. Farming is his primary source of income, and he does it very well.

Agriculture, however, is not how Mavhunga has always supported himself. How he makes his livelihood is just one of many things that have changed since Mavhunga was forced to leave his home country of Zimbabwe, seeking refuge in bordering Botswana.

Mavhunga will allude to the civil unrest that forced him from Zimbabwe only vaguely. "We were having problems. I was being accused of supporting the opposition," he says. "I was working at a health center, and when I was accused of treating opposition party members, I was beaten."

Kevin Mavhunga, a native of Zimbabwe, has put down roots with a garden and Habitat house in Botswana until he feels it is safe to go home.

During the assault, Mavhunga's hip was broken. Because he was denied medical care for some time after the attack, his hip healed poorly, and doctors are unable to perform hip replacement surgery. Mavhunga always will walk with a limp; he will suffer daily discomfort from his injuries for the rest of his life.

Mavhunga is not alone. Throughout the world, 33 million people have left behind cherished possessions and relationships in a desperate attempt to feel safer elsewhere. And though some areas of the world may seem more prone to civil unrest, it is depressingly widespread.

A Sense of Permanence
A few conflicts are well-publicized; the atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan have garnered significant media exposure. The coverage is justified: More than 200,000 people have been killed and 7 million displaced since the conflict began in February 2003. The violence there is responsible for a humanitarian crisis as millions of people lack the supplies and security to plant crops and work their trades.

Most civil unrest, however, seems to hover beneath the radar of public awareness, even when the violence has penetrated deeply into the country's society. In Sri Lanka, where Habitat has been working in stable pockets since 1994, 19 years of conflict were quieted by a 2002 ceasefire that has been all but abandoned in more recent years, with some 2,000 people killed in 2006. The potential volatility of other hotspots around the planet affects Habitat's world--the recent conflict in southern Lebanon, for example, as well as constantly evolving political situations in places such as Colombia, East Timor, Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo. As families uproot their lives to seek sanctuary somewhere--anywhere--safe, housing becomes a critical factor in their physical, emotional and mental well-being. At a minimum, they need shelter from the elements and security for their few belongings; in time, to be truly well, they need a home in which to heal from the past and hope for the future.

Despite his injuries, Mavhunga is grateful to be alive, and he is making the best of his situation. "I deported myself to Gaborone," he says. "Then, people from UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) brought me here."

"Here" is Dukwi, Botswana, about a six-hour drive northeast from the capital city of Gaborone. Dukwi is a small, traditional village-dominated by a large, anything-but-traditional refugee camp.

The refugee camp at Dukwi opened in the late 1970s, initially providing a sanctuary for people fleeing unrest between government and rebel forces in Angola. Then, in the early 1980s, South Africans began coming into Botswana to escape apartheid. Today, the camp shelters individuals from 17 African nations--a total of approximately 3,000 people.

"It is difficult to give an exact number of residents," says Oscar Lebitsong, who served as Habitat for Humanity's special projects coordinator at Dukwi. "Some new people still come into the camp, and sometimes people leave and return home, or go elsewhere. There is a lot of movement through the camp."

In a camp of impermanent residents, what, then, has been the role of Habitat, which builds only permanent shelter? In 1999, Habitat for Humanity Botswana began working in partnership with the camp, which is run jointly by UNHCR and the government of Botswana. "The office of the president actually 'owns' the Habitat houses," Lebitsong explains, "and that office grants camp residents the rights to live there."

Though they did not pay a mortgage for their Habitat houses, Habitat residents in Dukwi did help build the homes, just like in more traditional Habitat programs. Should any of the residents relocate from the camp, the office of the president has the right to reassign a new family to the home, and that family is responsible for any necessary repairs or renovations.

One hundred Habitat houses stand in the Dukwi camp, and the "Habitat section" is in sharp contrast to the "tent section." The Habitat houses were built as duplexes. Many of the residents have planted small gardens or are tending native fruit trees. Even in the environment of a refugee camp, there is a sense of permanence and "home."

The tents, on the other hand, expose the precarious existence of living as a refugee. The tents are worn, some completely tattered and full of holes. Some tent residents have attempted to build their own more permanent shelter and have constructed mud huts, which quickly erode and crumble.


(Continued)