Just a small glimpse of life of a Refugee Camp in the DRC….
We met Batti, who is sixteen, while we were meeting with a NGO in a Refugee Camp in Eastern Congo. We were told that he had lost both of his parents when the Rebels attacked his village. He was separated from them when they were trying to escape the fighting and he had been trying to find them ever since. It had been two years, but had not found them yet…
So here he was alone, in a refugee camp of 20,000 without any means of supporting himself, and he was not getting enough food to feed himself (only enough for four days per month supply). He told us that he would like to work, but had no means of getting the tools that he needed to get a job. He had thought about cutting hair or possible farming but had neither of the tools needed for those jobs.
We asked him what he wanted most, he answered, “to be reunited with my parents.” What stood out to me the most about Batti, when we first met him was that he had no hope. He shared things about his life without a glimmer of hope. He was one of the most hopeless people I had ever met. He had nothing that he was living for and had no way of changing his life circumstances…He felt powerless, and as result was hopeless.
My heart broke for Batti, I wanted to see him to know the hope that was could be his. Before we left, one of my team members shared how God loved him and wanted to take care of him as a good father. While this was a reality, and something he needed to hear, it didn’t do anything to break the hopelessness in his life. It is in moments like this that I can feel powerless to do anything. But I realized at this moment that the hope of this truth needs to be fought for and invested in places like this refugee camp. It made me so hungry to invest my heart in life in a place like this and with people like Batti…
I found out a few weeks ago that this refugee camp where Batti lived was cleared out and everyone was “sent home.” The reality of the situation was that they were forced out of the camp by the government with force and everything was burned. I have no idea where Batti may be…
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