Restoring hope for displaced Congolese children at Nkamira Transit Center

Everyday morning, Mutesi Mammi, 12, joins her friends at one of the corners of Nkamira Transit Center, hosting new Congolese asylum seekers to learn crocheting. She has been able to make scarves and bath gloves with thread since she joined the group two weeks ago.

But for Mutesi, who was in primary five when her mother and five siblings decided to seek safety in Rwanda early this year following the increased violence in eastern DRC, crocheting is more than producing the items.

“It helps me forget what I went through back home in DRC,” Mutesi says. “I could hear gun fighting on the way to school until we decided to flee. It was terrifying.”

After reaching safety at the transit center, Mutesi is grateful that she and her colleagues are provided with activities that keep them busy. However, life is still very far from ideal.

“I wish to go back to school,” she says.

On the other side of the transit center, Mutesi’s four younger siblings join other children aged between 3 and 10 in a big tent where they learn new songs, tell recitations, learn about good behaviors, and get some cookies, juice, or milk depending on the availability of stock. Food is also provided three times a day to the new arrivals as communal living shelters mean establishing individual cooking facilities at Nkamira is currently not possible.

Since mid-November last year, the escalating violence in eastern DRC has forced over 5,500 new asylum seekers to seek safety in Rwanda. Over 58 per cent of them are children, including unaccompanied and separated children.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, the Government of Rwanda, UNICEF and WFP, and humanitarian partners, have been scaling up the emergency response to provide shelter and protection and revive hope for displaced children like Mutesi. Funding is urgently required to sustain the humanitarian assistance.