Rwanda lauded for pro-refugee policy

Rwanda has been lauded for its exemplary approach toward integration and management of refugees. Kristin Davis, a celebrity activist and goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), made the ramarks during her visit to Gihembe Refugee Camp in Gicumbi District on Wednesday. Davis was flanked by UNHCR country representative Saber Azam, and Jean Claude Rwahama, director of refugee affairs at the Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs. “The way the refugees are received here is with such warmth, such deep understanding of what it’s like to be a refugee and have to flee your home and the problems that come with it,” said the actress, who is better-known for her role in the 1998 American romantic comedy series, Sex and the City. Davis is in the country to meet refugees and understand better their situation. Thereafter, she will make a short documentary film about the refugees for fundraising purposes. The day before, she had met with community leaders of the over 30,000 urban refugees living in Kigali. She also paid Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs minister, Seraphine Mukantabana, a courtesy call, also visited Mahama refugee camp that hosts Burundian refugees. “The minister was so impressive in terms of talking about her vision for what refugees can be here in this country. I haven’t been to a country where a minister spoke to me in such a personal way about what she wants to see happen, and that’s really moving,” Davis said of Mukantabana. “It’s wonderful to be here. I love Rwanda and I’ve been here before, in 2010, it’s the most beautiful country I know, and on this particular trip with UNHCR, I’ve learnt that it’s also one of the warmest and most empathetic and humanitarian-based countries that I’ve been to,” she added. At a time when the number of displaced people across the globe is on a steady upward spiral, Davis spoke of the importance of telling the stories of these refugees’ plight to the world, hence the short documentary film she intends to make. “One of the things we found most effective for fundraising is to tell personal stories. Not just figures, not just talking about the conflicts that make the people leave. Obviously, that’s bad news, but it’s important to connect people to what the actual experience is like to be a refugee and what it’s like once you’re in a camp, and how much people want to get out of camps, so there are many different elements,” she said. “When we went to Mahama Refugee Camp, the Burundian women had a very entrepreneurial spirit, a very impressive urge to be making products and forming little businesses and one of our goals is going to be trying to find some support for them.” About the documentary Expounding on the documentary she is working on, Davis said it’s not a feature-length film, but just a short documentary. “We always bring a small film crew with us, they shoot things and we make short little films that we can then use on social media. Film is a powerful way to communicate to other people who really have no idea what’s going on,” she said. “They might read it in the newspapers and talk about the number of people that have to run from their homes, but you don’t really understand what those people are going through. “So when we come here we try to make short films and focus on certain stories, and one of the stories we are focusing on here at Gihembe are the people who’ve been here for such a long time. It’s a really rare situation where people have been in the camp for 20 years, and a lot of those people want to be resettled to America. “So we want to be able to connect those stories and share what they’ve been through here, how they were living here, what their hopes and aspirations are, and then follow them to America and tell their stories there.” editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Rwanda lauded for pro-refugee policy