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The Refugee Children of Sudan
by Dan Stoenescu (Cairo, August 2003)

When many Americans think of Egypt, they see the magnificent past overshadowing the present. Very few Americans realize that Egypt is also a gateway to freedom for millions of refugees escaping the famine, repression and civil wars of the African continent. The statistics of 2002 show that there are 10,000 refugees living in Egypt (this does not include 70,000 Palestinians), and over two thirds of these are Sudanese. Most of these refugees are young people, who have escaped the hardships of war, torture and oppression.

Since the early 80s, Sudan has experienced conflicts between the Arab Muslim northerners, the base of the government, and the black Africans of the south, who practice mainly Christian or animist beliefs. Since 1983 at least one out of every five southern Sudanese has died because of the 17-year civil war. Nearly two million people have died and about 80% of
southern Sudan's estimated five million people have been displaced. Besides the atrocities of war, famine is devastating the country. Malnutrition is the main cause of death for hundreds of thousands of people. Due to the everyday nightmare that the Sudanese experience, many chose to cross the northern border to Egypt, and then hoping to immigrate to a safe heaven in
the west.

The reality of undocumented immigrants and refugees in Egypt is very different from what the official statistics say. Many non-governmental associations and churches talk about hundreds of thousands, even millions of Sudanese refugees in Egypt. The situation is complex because many Sudanese do not receive refugee status from the United Nations High Commission for
Refugees (UNHCR). In fact many do not even apply or are afraid to do so. Among the refugee community, there are many stories of people being deported back to Sudan; once they arrived they were executed because they were considered rebels by the Sudanese government.

Once in Egypt many Sudanese realize that this is not paradise. Once here many become homeless, unemployed and face much discrimination. This is particularly hard for the thousands of children that face the real world and the harsh life of being refugees. The Sudanese refugee children are not allowed to attend public schools in Egypt because they are not citizens. In order to help with their education, churches like the Presbyterian Church
USA and non-governmental organizations, like Rotary International, have established special schools for the Sudanese refugee children. One of these schools is the African Hope School.

The African Hope School is in the Maadi district, a relatively nice neighborhood of Cairo where few Sudanese live. Because of that, many children and teachers have to travel a long way just to get to school. The school has about 400 students ranging from 3 to 19 years of age and about 10 dedicated teachers who are themselves refugees. Most of the children here have emigrated from Sudan to Egypt in search of a better life, but even in Egypt they face discrimination. Some of the children were sent away by their parents, who decided to stay in Sudan. They had hoped that their children would get a better future if they immigrated to Egypt. Although their stories are tragic, they still have a friendly smile on their faces - a smile of hope. With the help of UNHCR, most of these children will emigrate to the United States, Canada, Australia or Europe. Therefore, so it is crucial for them to have basic education.

The school is located in a small building that has few facilities. In the school yard there is another provisional small building made of wood and cardboard. This small room is the Social Sciences classroom, and it is able to stand because it was built next to an old tree that holds the whole structure together. The classroom has no windows and there are no differences between being outside and inside the classroom. Because of the overcrowded classes, this room is used even in the winter. In the middle of January students study here at a temperature of 50 degrees while wearing gloves and hats.

In spite of the poor conditions, the students are the ones that warm the whole school through their willingness to learn and through their strong characters. Many passed through terrible experiences that transformed them into adults maybe to early.

Anna Charles is a 14-year-old student from Yambio. She came to Egypt in1999, with only her mother. When her mother applied for refugee status in May 1999, she got sick and was not able to go for the interview. Ever since then she was not able to get another interview and when she and her mother went back, they were ignored. She has been able to adapt to the new life in
Egypt, but she has been the object of teasing in the streets and even in her own house: Some Egyptians are not polite with us. They see that we have a different color skin and they call us demeaning names like monkey, chocolate or honga-bonga (carbon monoxide powder). They throw stones at us when we walk on the street. Once they even came to our apartment, threatened us and asked for money. I would like to go to the west because for me this country
is not secure and I am threatened everyday. Even though she goes through so many hardships, this 14-year-old girl has a strong character and, according to her teachers, she is the leader of her class. In the future Anna would like to become a doctor and go back to southern Sudan where medicine and doctors are in great demand.

Zaki Tameem is a 15-year-old young man from the southern Sudanese city of Juba. In 1999 he and the other 7 members of his family were forced to live in tunnels for months because of the intense fighting between the government forces and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). After months of sufferance the family decided to flee Juba and go to the capital Khartoum, and afterwards to Egypt. In Egypt, Zakis family endured lots of hardships. For Zaki, even coming to school is a hard task. Because the daily 1-pound (20 cents) for transportation is too much for him, he comes to school every other day. Also simple things like the lack of soap to wash his clothes are an impediment for him to continue his education. In spite of these hardships, for Zaki as well as for the other Sudanese, Egypt is a better place in some aspects: In Sudan we live sometimes for days without food because there is simply no food or it is too expensive. In Egypt is not so bad, with 10 piasters (2 cents) you can buy a piece of bread to survive.

In Cairo, Zaki and his family experience the same kind of discrimination and racism like all the other refugees. There is a lot of police brutality and abuse against the Sudanese, he recounts. My brother Abdul Rahman Tameem while he was looking for a job, was taken to jail by the
police although he had the UNHCR residence card. Right now he is in jail and in order to bring him food we need to bribe the guards.

The Tameem family fears for Abdul Rahmans safety because they had tragic experiences in the past with the Egyptian police. In 2001, Zakis cousin Deng Karbino, 20 years old, was taken to the police station to be questioned in a case in which he was the one accusing some Egyptians of theft. After a few months the family received Deng's dead body with signs of
violence. His eyes were missing as well as many internal organs. When the family wanted to know what happened they were threatened, and then beaten by the police who told them not to inquire anymore about Deng's death.

Victor James Aquat is a 14-year-old boy that simply could not stand the constant humiliation that he was enduring in Cairo. Without telling his parents he left Cairo and traveled south all the way to Aswan, trying to cross the border back to Sudan. He wanted to go back to Sudan to live with his old grandmother. Having no papers he was caught at the border by the Egyptian border patrol and put in jail in Aswan. It took months and lots of bribes for his parents to get him out from a Cairo jail.

For most of these children the African Hope School is just a short episode in their lives before immigrating to a Western country. In spite of that their education here is crucial. For many children, especially for those from the rural and tribal areas of Sudan, acquiring a basic education, learning English, and having some kind of moral support is critical for a
future integration into a western society, like the American society for example. Although many will immigrate, the real aim for most of the refugee children and their parents is to go back to their native country. However until the political disagreements are solved or the economical situation improves, returning to Sudan is impossible.

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