WUSC Regina

Over the past year of 2012, there have been several policy changes that have changed the lives of refugees in Canada. WUSC Regina feels very strongly that these policy changes will create long-term negative impacts for the refugees and for the Canadian community in general.

On April 25th, 2012 the Federal government announced cuts to most healthcare benefits for refugees that are currently provided by Canada’s Interim Federal Health (IFH) program, effective on June 30, 2012. Across Canada, healthcare providers, people who work with refugees and ordinary citizens are rallying against this decision, concerned that it flies in the face of an important Canadian value – providing a safe haven for vulnerable people around the world. Ironically, the cuts come into effect just in time for Canada Day.

The IFH program provides access to refugees and refugee claimants who need healthcare for a temporary period of time, and who generally have no other means of obtaining necessary health benefits.   Refugees are a particularly vulnerable population, often with extreme healthcare needs.  Many have untreated health conditions and severe trauma resulting from prolonged periods in refugee camps and human rights violations such as torture.  Having fled their homeland to escape persecution, many are destitute when they arrive in Canada and lack the resources to pay for healthcare expenses.

The announced changes to the IFH program include cutting access to essential medication, cuts to basic primary health care, cuts to dental care, vision care, ambulance services and cuts to mobility devices like wheelchairs, for many classes of refugees.  Healthcare services to be cut include prenatal care, child health check-ups and access to mental health care.  Some refugees will receive basic emergency care only if their condition is deemed to pose a threat to public health.
Canadian Doctors for Medicare warn that these cuts could result in diabetics not getting their insulin, children not receiving immunizations, and people not receiving needed heart medication, potentially contributing to heart attacks.

Federal Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney said:  “With this reform, we are also taking away an incentive from people who may be considering filing an unfounded refugee claim in Canada. These reforms allow us to protect public health and safety, ensure that tax dollars are spent wisely and defend the integrity of our immigration system all at the same time.”

Minister Kenney fails to understand that providing health supports to refugees when they arrive is both cost effective and an investment in the future. A recent Globe and Mail story highlighted a refugee who received care under the IFH:  “Majid Boozary came to Canada in 1980, fleeing post-revolutionary Iran, where he had been persecuted and tortured. He needed care and got it. But Dr. Boozary has given back in spades, as a family physician            (who has paid taxes for 30 years) and a volunteer with the Canadian Centre for the Victims of Torture.”

Furthermore, health professionals question the validity of the IFH cuts as a cost-saving measure. They point out that costs will be shifted to other public programs and organizations that provide the uninsured with health benefits, such as community health centres and provincial social support services.  Refugees with chronic diseases, such as diabetes or heart disease, will seek care in hospitals and through emergency departments – one of the most costly forms of care.
Opposition to the proposed changes is led by physicians and other healthcare providers.  “It is unprecedented in Canada for physicians to gather at once from coast to coast voicing their concerns over a single patient care issue such as this one. Doctors and other healthcare workers are being moved to action in an effort to prevent the devastating impact of these health cuts to some of the poorest and most vulnerable members of our society” says Dr. Michael Dillon, a family physician practicing in downtown Winnipeg who has worked with newcomer refugees for nearly 20 years.

Minister Kenney has defended these cuts by arguing that refugees should not be receiving health coverage that is not available to other Canadians.  Louise Simbandumwe, a refugee from Burundi, counters, “This is simply not the case. Many Canadians have extended health coverage through their workplaces while Canadians who are living at the same low levels of income as government–assisted refugees receive needed health coverage through provincial social assistance programs.“

“Canada is known around the world as a champion of human rights and we pride ourselves in our system of health care for all. We are concerned about the erosion of Canadian standards. This move is definitely un-Canadian. We are calling on the Federal government to reverse the decision to cut back the Interim Federal Health Program” states Carlos Vialard, Settlement Services Manager at the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council Inc. (Welcome Place).

Immigration Matters in Canada Coalition is a group of professionals, community workers and community members based in Winnipeg who care about the well being and fair treatment of refugees and immigrants in Canada.

National Health Care Organizations
Opposed to IFH Cuts

College of Family Physicians of Canada
Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada
Canadian Association of Optometrists
Canadian Association of Social Workers
Canadian Dental Association
Canadian Medical Association
Canadian Nurses Association
Canadian Pharmacists Association
Canadian Association of Community Health Centres
Canadian Doctors for Medicare
Canadian Association of Midwives
Registered Nurses Association of Ontario
Canadian Federation of Nurses Union
Canadian Psychiatric Association
Canadian Paediatric Society
Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Canada

It might be a little bit overdue, but better late than never! We held our second ever Mock Refugee camp again last December as a part of the 16 days of Activism on campus.

This year, our Mock Refugee Camp was set up for an entire week. We had 3 tents full of the stories of our sponsored refugees and the refugee camps they came from: Dadaab and  Kakuma camps in Kenya, and Ban Mai Nai Soi, Mae Ra Moe, and Mae Su Rae refugee camps in Thailand. We also had information about urban refugees, the current changes to refugee health care in Canada, and more. We also prepared some typical meals from the refugee camps to share with passer-bys.

One of the best parts about the week was hearing our sponsored students share their stories with others in the camp. One afternoon, a grade 5 class from Davidson came all the way down to Regina to join us, and Jacob and Patience shared their stories with the kids. The kids were so engaged. Who knows?! Maybe they will grow up to be future members of a WUSC Chapter somewhere!

Overall, it was a great chance for students, faculty, and community members to stop by, learn and ask questions, but also to share their own experiences and stories about refugee issues.

We cannot thank everyone who stopped by the Mock Refugee Camp during that week enough. The week was an amazing chance for us to raise awareness within our community about the work WUSC does and about issues facing refugees and the difference education can make!

Thanks also to Luther College Cafeteria, Safeway, The National Reserves, and the Cadets, who helped us with donations and support throughout the week!

Kay Niedermayer

This year WUSC Regina sponsored 4 students from the Thai-Burma borderlands. Last November, Kay got together with the girls to write out some of their stories for an article in the school newspaper, the Carillon. Here are some of their stories:

Kin’s Story

My name is Kin Pwonglay and I came from the Ban Mai Nai Soi Karenni refugee camp in Thailand. This is one of nine camps along the Thai-Burma border for Burmese minority groups. I have been living in refugee camps throughout my entire life.

My family came from Burma. Burma gained independence from the British in 1948. The junta military government took power in a coup d’état in 1962. The junta has been violently attempting to control the population since then. There has been ongoing conflict between the military government and the seven ethnic minority groups. Many minority groups have been killed, and many people were forced to leave their homes. Our people could not bear to live under this military government. For this reason, thousands of Burmese ethnic minority people are born in refugee camps.

My family is Karenni, one of the ethnic minorities in Burma. My parents fled Burma in 1991 because of a civil war between the junta and armed ethnic groups. The junta burned their village and tortured the villagers. They took all their money and raped many women. They abducted many men and women and forced them to work as porters, transporting supplies for the military.

My parents came to the Mae Sarin Refugee camp, where I was born. When my parents divorced in 2003, the UNHCR transferred my mother, my sisters and me to another Karenni refugee camp, located near Mae Hong Son. My biological father often came to visit us and bought us some clothes, but after my mother remarried, the camp committee did not allow my father to visit us unless my mother agreed. I could not see my father after that.

It is hard to get an education in the refugee camp. My mother and stepfather are both uneducated and lack work opportunities in the camp, we always faced financial difficulty. My parents could not leave the camp to make money or the Thai police would arrest them, and no one would hire them inside the camp.

For this reason, I encouraged myself to be an educated person and to look after my family. I was dreaming to get an education since I was young but I didn’t see a path to achieve my goal because education in camps only offer us high school level or post-ten level. My dream to attend an international university was not possible if I stayed in the camp.

However, I did not give up my dream and I finished my schooling from primary school to post-ten level in the camp. I worked hard to pass high school with distinctions to attend a Karenni Post-Ten School that took two years to complete. I tried hard to complete my school lessons. After finishing school, I taught science in a high school in the camp. Although I was just freshly graduated, I had to teach the camp children because there were not enough teachers.

Now, I want to study economics because I want to help my county in reforming state’s economy. The military government is destroying the economy in Burma, and this affects people’s lives, like my family. Without a good economic system, I do not believe our country can develop. Although Burma is rich natural resources, it will not last long if today economy system is going on. After my graduation, I will deliver my skills and qualification at the school I attended. Then, I will help my community as much as I can.

Wah Wah’s Story

My name is Paw Wah Shee and my friends call me Wah Wah. I was born in the Karen state of Burma. My father passed away when I was one month old so I don’t have any brothers or sisters. When I was 7, our family moved to Mae Ra Moe Refugee Camp on the Thai-Burma border because of the civil war. I stayed together with my mother and went to school in Refugee camp.

In the camp, I could go to school and study but if I wanted to go outside the camp and study more, it was hard for me because I didn’t have an ID card. In the refugee camp, we live under the Thai Authorities and we cannot leave the camp without this ID card. Some of the students are very smart, but they don’t have any chance to further their studies outside of the camp. For many, life starts and ends in the camp.

My parents tried to look after their family but they didn’t have good jobs to earn enough money. NGOs provide some community work within the camp but it is not enough because there are a lot of people in the camp.

In the camps we got rations and free health care. There are many NGOs who help us. Sometimes foreign doctors and teachers come to help us for a short time, but we cannot become as qualified enough to support ourselves. The children in the camps are pitiful. Now, the situation is getting worse because the education is not free any more. The parents have to pay half of the school fees for their children and help the teacher in many ways. Life in the camp is very boring and difficult. I don’t know what will happen to new generation. Even if we have our basic needs met, we still have no right to do what we want.

There are a lot of local Thai-Karen villages around the camp. Sometimes they come and sell local vegetables and they are familiar with the camp and the people there. They offer the jobs to the Karen refugees, but working outside of the camp is illegal. When the police catch them, the refugees who take these jobs will be punished.

The refugees are often blamed for doing things that we didn’t do. Every summer, the forests near the camp are burned down. Although we don’t know how this happened, the Thai Authorities blame us and we have to pay for the destruction almost every year.

Life in the refugee camp was very difficult and we did not have many opportunities to leave. Before now, I have never been to a city. I felt nervous at first but now everything is okay. I am grateful to be sponsored by WUSC.

Sayra’s Story

My name is Naw Say Ra Thaw. I’m Karen and I was born in Thailand. I have four brothers and one sister and I am the youngest among my siblings. My father passed away when I was three months in my mother’s womb. Now my family lives in Mae Ra Moe refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border.

My parents originally lived in Burma. For many reasons, my parents left Burma to Thailand as refugee people. Before they left, they faced many problems with the junta, who destroyed many houses, fields, and paddies. There was not enough food in the village. They often arrested men and forced them to become porters. My parents had to move to another place every time the soldiers invaded the village. The children had no chance to go to school because of this horrible situation. There was also a lot of disease, but no medicine to protect the people from dying. The government caused all these problems for my ethnic group, and my parents did not have any protection from the authorities in their country.

When we were in Thailand, we were not afraid of enemies, but we knew that we couldn’t do what we wanted to do in the camp. We were no longer in Burma, but we didn’t have Thai citizenship either. We had a chance to go to school, but there was no higher education in the camp, so the education level is very low. Most students want to continue their education, but they don’t have the opportunity. There are not enough teachers, and some of the teachers don’t have a good enough quality education to teach the students. We also have post-ten schools, which is a two year course. After that, many students want to continue their studies but can’t, so they become teachers. They can’t find a job to make a lot of money, just a little and it’s not enough for their family.

I can say that I am lucky because I can continue my studies and set goals for my future life in Canada. In the future, I hope to study Business Administration and I hope one day I will be able to do something for my people who really need my help. I really appreciate the WUSC’s sponsorship program; it is a very good program for youth students who live in refugee camps.

Dayday’s Story

My name is Baw Meh, but people call me Dayday. I was born in Hwen Pu Ket, a Karenni long neck village in Thailand. My family moved to Mae Su Rae refugee camp when I was 2 months old. I lived in the refugee camp for 19 years. I went to school in the camp, and when I finished school, I worked in an office at the refugee school. My mother, father, and five sisters are still living in the refugee camp.

The refugee camp is very far away from the city. Mountains surround the camp and the river flows through it. In the rainy season, the river floods and destroys many of the houses. The rations in the camp are supplied by an NGO called TBBC (Thai Burma Border Committee). There is a medical clinic supported by the U.S. government, called the IRC (International Rescue Committee). It supplies basic medicine for people in the camp. There is also a school supported by a European NGO called JRS (Jesuit Refugee Service). The JRS supplies note books, textbooks, and teachers’ salaries.

When I was a child in this camp, I knew nothing about life. I just knew to play, eat, and sleep. This was my daily life when I was a child in the camp. When I grew up, I felt something strong in my heart and in my brain. I was a refugee, with no nationality.

The one thing I surely know is, our government is not good. The government is lead by a dictator, and they want all of the ethnic groups in Burma to live under their rule. I want to know when the dictatorship will end. There is no free speech and no peace in Burma.

Now everything is changing in Burma. The Burmese government is making a peace talk with the ethnic minority armies. There is now a plan for the UN to eliminate the refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border within 5 years. Because of this, the rations provided in the camp are being cut. Now, there is less support for the refugees in the camp. The plan is that after the peace talks, refugees will leave the camp and return to Burma or stay in villages in Thailand. But I still do not trust the Burmese government, because the Karenni state tried to have peace talks with the government two times before now and none of them worked.

When I was in the refugee camp, I found out about the WUSC sponsorship program from a previously sponsored student who returned to the camp to share applications. This is the first time WUSC came to our camp, and it is the only program for students to leave the refugee camp. I applied and had many entrance exams. I was surprised when I was accepted, but very grateful for this opportunity. It is the only opportunity for me to continue my studies. I felt nervous when I first came to Regina, but it is like a dream come true. Now I dream of becoming a doctor and returning to Burma to help the community there.