To decrease the incidence of unnecessary illness, death and disease in Kala camp through educating adults and children about healthy living and disease prevention.
Knowledge about how to build healthy families, live healthy lives, and treat and avoid illness is among the most highly-sought after information in the refugee camps in which FORGE works. The refugee staff of Kala Health Services takes a holistic approach to health education by teaching about disease and illness by focusing on human anatomy and body systems. From this solid foundation, students learn about how diseases are contracted, spread, and avoided. Serving more than 800 people each month, Kala Health Services has seen marked improvements in the camp’s knowledge about caring for and maintaining their own personal health. This knowledge will be especially important upon return to Congo, where many people have no access to formal health services.
To provide repatriating refugees with tools and knowledge that will help them start healthy new lives when they return to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Many of the residents of Kala Refugee Camp have been living in refuge since 2000, when they fled war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Now, as the DRC celebrates more than two years without widespread conflict, these individuals are preparing to return home. Often unaware of the changes that await them, the skills that will be needed to successfully rebuild their lives, and their rights as repatriating refugees, the residents of Kala expressed a great need for assistance with navigating the repatriation process. In order to support and facilitate this journey, FORGE established the Community-Driven Repatriation Center (CDRC) to provide refugees with knowledge and skills that will help them transition to a new life. For many repatriating refugees, this refugee-staffed project means the difference between a smooth and successful restart to their lives and a rocky one.
To increase literacy and educational opportunity in Kala Camp by providing the only access to educational and information materials.
In communities where knowledge is so actively sought, a library quickly becomes a bastion of learning. For the population of Kala Refugee Camp, the Kala Peace Library (Bibliotheque de la Paix) plays anchor to this pursuit of knowledge. With well over 2,000 titles, stacks of periodicals, games, puzzles, and over 200 CDs, there are dozens of ways in which the patrons of the library enjoy reading and learning. The librarians also conduct letter-writing and resume-writing classes for adults, in order to help them secure employment when they return home. On the weekends, the library is home to story-telling hour for children and educational movie screenings at night. The Kala Peace Library is open to all 20,000 residents of Kala.
To enhance the earning potential and job skills of Kala Camp residents through valuable computer skills.
Refugees know that during their time in refuge, the world has become more and more reliant on technology. In this, they know that the future prospects of their families and their countries may depend upon the extent to which they gain the skills of the new tech economy. To make sure that Congo and the residents of Kala do not get left behind, the Kala Computer and Technology Center provides training in Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint to over 1500 refugees annually. Courses are taught in English, French, and Swahili. In a recent voyage to the Democratic Republic of Congo, FORGE found that most of the local employees who worked with computers were former FORGE computer students. These individuals credit FORGE with their success in finding work and being able to support their families.
To spread knowledge and build a sense of community in Kala camp by creating and circulating a refugee-produced news publication.
In the past, refugees in Kala Refugee Camp consistently voiced their concern with their lack of access to current news and information. Since few refugees have the means to travel outside of the camp to obtain a newspaper or find a news broadcast on TV, many refugees ended up feeling isolated and uninformed. Even on a smaller scale, within their own communities, refugees recognized a tendency for rumors to flourish in an environment without a reliable news source. Kala Camp News is a community publication that eases these strains by reporting on local happenings as well as international events. With Editor-in-Chief Kombe le Bon leading and training the staff, volunteer refugee journalists take the publication through each phase of production. The result is a two-pronged effect that meets the immediate community needs for information while simultaneously providing marketable job skills for the staff.
