International Refugee Aid and Social Change in Northern Mali

In: Refugee survey quarterly: reports, documentation, literature survey, Band 21, Heft 1-2, S. 147-159

Abstract

Examines the profound social changes refugees may experience from contact with international aid & development programs through a case study of persons from an ancient nomadic culture in northern Mali forced to flee to refugee camps in Mauritania & Algeria between 1990 & 1995. Although conditions in Algeria kept the refugees at a mere survival level, those at the camps in Mauritania, close to UNHCR, WFP, & NGO offices, received ample supplies & additional services. In Mauritania, the education, literacy, & training programs in the camps introduced children to formal education & women to health care work, midwife practice, sewing, cloth-dying, market gardening, small business management, & functional literacy in Tamacheq & Arabic. Approximately 200 returnees were interviewed in the summer of 1998 in the Timbuktu & Kidal regions after their return to Mali. The interviews demonstrated that the training received led to the transformation of the social role of women & encouraged community development. The author gives several suggestions for the design & implementation of developmental assistance programs for refugees. 1 Table, 15 References. L. A. Hoffman