A day in the life of Harrisson Ruben, Education in Emergency specialist, Mozambique
Children in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado region are in crisis. They are at risk of being killed by armed groups and terror has driven hundreds of thousands from their homes. Trauma, hunger, a lack of education and now COVID-19 are the grim facts of their lives. Our teams are working hard to alleviate their suffering. Harrisson Ruben, one of our Education in Emergency specialists, shares one of his days.
06:30 I’m in Pemba - a beautiful port city and the provincial capital of Cabo Delgado.
WE STAND SIDE BY SIDE WITH CHILDREN IN THE WORLD'S
TOUGHEST PLACES.
From my hotel window I hear the lively shouts of local commuter operators calling for passengers. Such normality hides the distressing reality of a region where 700,000 people have been displaced and 2,600 killed in the conflict against extremist rebels.
Pemba hosts an arrival centre for displaced adults and children. It’s flooded every day by around 1,000 people – almost half are children. They have escaped situations where they may have seen their entire villages destroyed and loved ones killed. I expect some of the children I meet today on my assessment visit to Metuge will have come through this centre.
As an education in emergency technical specialist, my role is to understand what children need regarding their disrupted education and then provide appropriate support.
Ayşe Nur Gençalp / Save the Children Türkiye
08:30 We leave in two vehicles – our destination is a 60km, hour-long journey. It’s my first time in this district and I wonder what I will find.
Internally Displaced People (IDP) and their children arrive daily and we really need to see exactly what is going on, so we can help in the best way possible.
10:00 On arrival we go directly to the IDP accommodation centre based in a school.
Dozens of tents have been erected all around the school yard. I’m pleased to see children running around playing as if everything is fine. Some stop to stare at us wondering what we are doing here. A group of mothers bend over a fireplace cooking while their small children wait to be served.
I’ll be holding discussion groups with children, parents, teachers and community leaders.
In one of the most comprehensive analyses to date of life as a displaced child in Cabo Delgado, “The Voice of Children of Cabo Delgado” details the wide-ranging daily challenges and fears faced by displaced children. Many of these children have witnessed horrific violence in a conflict that has displaced nearly a third of the province’s population. Rui Mutemba / Save the Children
10:15 I start with a group of eight parents. They look so frail and tired.
They say there is not enough food for their children and they are afraid of contracting diseases because of the unhygienic condition of the latrines. They speak hesitantly about the armed violence they escaped. I try very much to avoid touching on sensitive issues. Their faces show that they have gone through too much pain and I need to respect that. Many will have seen their farm animals, friends and even family members killed. Some of the women are alone. We have been advised not to ask where their husbands are.
11:00 Next, a group of timid boys and girls. Two girls, around 11 years old, have their younger siblings sleeping peacefully on their backs.
To get the children talking and to gain their confidence I decide to start with a funny hare and baboon story my grandmother used to tell me. I am not a particularly good or funny storyteller, but soon I manage to squeeze out a smile from a few of the children. And as I reach the funniest part of the story, the boys giggle and the girls grin widely. Then we get down to business.
One boy, João aged 11, says: “We left our homes in a hurry to hide in the bush when our village was attacked. We could not carry our books. Now I have no books and school materials – including pencils and paper. So I have nothing to use.”
They explain there is no playing space for them in the camp and that they cannot play freely in the nearby community playing field. They say this is because big boys from the host community don’t let them.
Clara’s* (6) father was killed when her village was attacked by armed men in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. Clara and her mother Mariana* (25) and her baby brother Pedro* (3) hid in the bush for four days and then escaped to another village. Their home was destroyed, and all their belongings burnt. After their escape, the family lived in a school for five months and then moved to a transit site for families who have been displaced by the conflict. When Clara found out her father had been killed, she was very upset and barely ate and didn’t play with her friends for a long time. Save the Children’s support: Save the Children’s child protection team is supporting Clara’s family with accessing services. We also provided Clara with a Happy Kid Kit – books, paper and coloured pencils – when she first arrived at the transit site. Mariana says she likes it when Clara plays because it helps her forget the past and to look to the future. Clara is also attending school and enjoys learning to read, write and draw. Her favourite thing to draw is houses because one day she’d like to live in a nice house. Background: Since September 2020, the conflict in Cabo Delgado has intensified with reports of increased violations against civilians including sexual violence, beheadings and abductions. The violence has forced more than 800,000 people to flee their homes, including 350,000 children. As the situation continues to deteriorate in the northern city of Palma, an increasing number of displaced families are arriving on a daily basis in Pemba and other southern districts. Families who have fled the violence are now living in often squalid conditions in transit or resettlement camps or in cramped houses with family and friends. Displaced children in Cabo Delgado are incredibly vulnerable. They may face violence, become separated from their families or be forced to work. Displaced children also lack access to healthcare and clean water, making them more exposed to killer diseases such as cholera and malaria. Many children are missing out on school, placing them at greater risk of exploitation, such as child marriage. Save the Children is playing a crucial role protecting unaccompanied and separated children and reunifying them with their families. We are creating community-based systems to protect children from exploitation and providing mental health and psychosocial support to displaced children and families. We’re also providing seeds and tools to help people restart their lives, installing water tanks and latrines in resettlement sites and distributing essential sanitation and hygiene materials to keep children clean and safe from diseases. Sacha Myers / Save the Children
12:00 I start my discussion groups with teachers and community leaders.
Both groups share how the armed violence has affected them and how the COVID-19 pandemic has made it even worse. They have no money to buy soap; water is scarce. They can’t afford face masks.
The teachers say that pupil numbers have suddenly increased and their school has no resources to support the additional children with the home learning required by COVID-19 restrictions. They point out that parents cannot afford the photocopies of written exercises their children need.
The teachers also explain that they have no education resources because they left their homes and schools with nothing. My background is teaching, and I imagine how I would feel in their situation. I admire their resilience and determination to do the best they can under very difficult circumstances.
Fifteen-year-old Antonio* was playing with his friends in his hometown of Palma, northern Mozambique, when armed men attacked. Antonio says he ran back to his house to look for his mother. He found her packing a bag and she asked him to wait, but he was scared and ran into the bush. The next day he found a boat to take him south to Pemba city, the capital of Cabo Delgado province. Antonio doesn’t know what has happened to his parents. Save the Children’s support: When Antonio stepped off the boat in Pemba, he looked around but couldn’t see anyone he knew. Save the Children’s child protection team was at the port and found Antonio. He was in shock. The team gave him food, water and shoes. We also gave him some books and pencils so he could draw and write while the team worked with the government’s Social Affair’s Department to organise a foster family for him. The foster families are identified in advance and provided with training on caring for children, children’s rights and how to provide psychosocial support. Now Antonio is safely with his foster family, including Nilia* (34), her husband and four children, Save the Children is working to find his parents through our family reunification programme, which is funded by SIDA, the Swedish government agency for development cooperation. Background: Since September 2020, the conflict in Cabo Delgado has intensified with reports of increased violations against civilians including sexual violence, beheadings and abductions. The violence has forced more than 800,000 people to flee their homes, including 350,000 children. As the situation continues to deteriorate in the northern city of Palma, an increasing number of displaced families are arriving on a daily basis in Pemba and other southern districts. Families who have fled the violence are now living in often squalid conditions in transit or resettlement camps or in cramped houses with family and friends. Displaced children in Cabo Delgado are incredibly vulnerable. They may face violence, become separated from their families or be forced to work. Displaced children also lack access to healthcare and clean water, making them more exposed to killer diseases such as cholera and malaria. Many children are missing out on school, placing them at greater risk of exploitation, such as child marriage. Save the Children is playing a crucial role protecting unaccompanied and separated children and reunifying them with their families. We are creating community-based systems to protect children from exploitation and providing mental health and psychosocial support to displaced children and families. We’re also providing seeds and tools to help people restart their lives, installing water tanks and latrines in resettlement sites and distributing essential sanitation and hygiene materials to keep children clean and safe from diseases. Sacha Myers / Save the Children
15:00 I thank everyone profusely for their contributions and head towards the vehicles.
Heading back to Pemba, we talk about some of our next steps. We agree:
the children need immediate counselling and psychosocial support to help them cope with trauma they have experienced
the children need learning materials immediately to participate fully in home learning
the teachers, overwhelmed by the large influx of children, urgently need teaching materials
quick arrangements must be made to create a child-friendly playing space
19:00 I check my emails; everything seems to be marked important!
I’m working on a project proposal seeking funds for our humanitarian response to Cabo Delgado. I’m inspired by my day meeting the children and their families and I feel a surge of adrenalin - I work through the proposal and send it off. I hardly notice the time ticking away.
23:00 As I get ready to sleep, I think that tomorrow will be another long day for the traumatised children and adults I met.
I hope that my assessment will ensure that Save the Children can give the children the help they urgently need.
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Elsa* and Andre* live with their three children Cremildo*, Albertine* and Paizinho* in a displacement camp in the northern Mozambique province of Cabo Delgado. The family have been living in the camp for four months, since fleeing their village in October 2020 after it was attacked by armed men. Their oldest child, Filipe*, was murdered by the armed men. When their village was attacked, the armed men looted and burned nearly every home they reached. Even simple huts were destroyed, and many people were killed. Elsa* and Andre* ran with three of their younger children into a nearby forest, where they hid in the dark but were able to hear their neighours and friends being killed. According to the couple, some people were shot and others beheaded. Others were taken away and their whereabouts remain unknown. Their oldest son Filipe* was beheaded by the armed men. Following this violence, the family, along with other survivors from the village, decided to flee their village and look for refuge. They initially were housed in the yard of a local primary school, before moving to the camp, 200km away from their village. Elsa* and Andre* were farmers and they would fish for a living. Since living in the camp, they have struggled to make ends meet and have relied on humanitarian support from agencies like Save the Children. They are also haunted by the horror of the conflict they witnessed in their home community, with the children particularly traumatized by what they experienced. Paizinho has also started to have serious health problems, which the family are struggling to treat now that they are in the camp. He has hernias and sometimes suffers from epileptic episodes. While these issues had started to manifest just before the family ran away from their village, and the local hospital had already started treatment, they were not able to continue the treatment because of having to flee. None of the children are attending school in the camp, and are struggling to pass each day. The family are also suffering from diarrhoea and other health issues as the result of having very limited access to clean water and food. Save the Children’s case management team is working with Elsa* and Andre* to support Paizinho*, monitoring his health and ensuring that he has priority access to the humanitarian healthcare available. Rui Mutemba / Save the Children
