Playgrounds to escape the violence

Every day, up to 850 children gather in a UNICEF supported recreational playground, in the middle of the Kalunga camp, next to Kalemie, the capital of Tanganyika Province. 717,000 people have fled the inter-ethnic violence that ravaged this Province of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, of whom 48,000 have settled in several camps around Kalemie.

In the midst of laughter and games, they forget for a few hours, the violence and their tragic stories. Chancelle, 8 years old, plays jumping rope and seems completely absorbed by this activity. She has been coming here every day since she had to flee her village, about 200 kilometers to the west. She lost her father and 5 siblings during the clashes. She arrived with her mother in Kalunga camp in March and she receives shelter and food.

Julie, barely 10 years old, arrived on foot a fortnight ago from Kasala, a village about 100 kilometersaway.

“I walked 3 days. I left my village because my father and mother were killed. They died in front of me. I managed to flee and join those who left the village, but I had to abandon my 1 year old sister. Here at the camp, I do not have family.”

At the recreational playground, “artistic activities, songs, drawings, participatory theater are organized in the afternoons, to enable them to exteriorize their feelings and to ease their trauma”, says a facilitator.

Children who attend the recreation area have arrived recently and have not yet returned to school. 123 children are newly enrolled at Maendeleo Primary School in the Kolobondo neighborhood. To welcome them, UNICEF built two new classrooms and rehabilitated two more. School materials were also distributed to student ant the school benefited from recreational kits and hygiene kits to ensure student attendance and health.

David, 15, whose father was killed during the attack on his village, found the hope of becoming a doctor one day, “to be able to look after my mother if one day she fell ill”.