A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

This statement giver told the TRC that he tried to drink kerosene one day in a suicide attempt. 219
A young woman living in Buduburam told the TRC that “sometimes she loses hope and wants to
commit suicide. She has no education and no parents.” 220
Living with the daily strain of this trauma, refugees in Buduburam also struggle to meet basic needs.
Most in the camp are acutely aware of the obligations of the international community to protect
refugees, yet they feel that they have been left to fend for themselves. Statement givers identified
access to basic necessities as an ongoing issue 17 years after the camp had been established. Conditions
at Buduburam are “very difficult…because we are not receiving adequate ration[s], sanitary condition
is very poor, lack of proper health care, refugees are unemployed and opportunities for learning are
lacking.” 221 One camp resident who fled Liberia when he was ten years old described his situation
and perceptions of life. After losing both his mother and father in the war, this statement giver was
brought to Ghana by a Liberian woman who took him in. She was then resettled in the United States,
however, and since then he has not heard from her. The following is his interviewer’s description of
his concerns.
He has since done yard work to make money, and this has allowed him
to pay for his education. He was able to afford tuition with the help of a
sponsor, and he finished his Buduburam education in 2002. He did not
take the national exam, however, until 2004 when the UNHCR came to the
camp to sponsor the test.
In 2005 he learned about electrical installation at a technical school, which
was sponsored by AGRE and UNHCR. One of his teachers hired him for
electrical installation jobs around Accra, but in November 2006 the teacher
left for the United States and this work was no longer available. [He] has
since sold water in the camp.
[His] time at the camp has been very tough, as he is generally alone. It is
difficult to maintain steady employment, so he cannot obtain food on a
consistent basis. He would also like to continue his education, which he has
not been able to do. He is very dissatisfied with the economic conditions.
He has numerous security concerns. The camp is disturbingly polluted, as
there are few available [toilets] and no one cleans it. He is very fearful of
contracting malaria, typhoid fever, or dysentery. In particular, the public
toilets and ‘the gulf’ are extremely unhealthy. Those in charge of the toilets
charge 500 cedis for each use, and they have told him that as they are unpaid
otherwise, they use the money for personal use, not for cleaning the toilet.
329
Chapter Thirteen