Buduburam is a former refugee camp for Liberians who fled from their home country during its bloody and horrible civil war. It was run by the UNHCR but after the war was declared over the camp was technically closed and the Liberians staying there were urged to go back to Liberia. Many of them had nothing to go back to and so they stayed. The camp has continued to exist in a legal limbo since then.
Buduburam history
My friend John has lived in the camp and many of the people he knows and has worked with live there too, though John himself since moved to Accra.
Yesterday John’s brother Joshua sent him a message that bulldozers had destroyed the room he was renting and that his few possessions were scattered. He asked for help.
This morning John went to Buduburam to find that it was being destroyed. The local chiefs have decided to close it down and build a local market on the site. The shacks the people have been staying in are being flattened. Everyone is scattered, many with no money and no place to stay.
www.graphic.com.gh/…
This strikes straight to the heart. I know many of the people affected. Some of them are people we have been helping. As if their lives weren’t miserable enough before, now they are being stripped of what little they had to hold onto.
John’s brother Joshua is a friend of mine. We have spoken together many times. He wanted to be an artist but his poverty made that impossible. He is not entirely stable mentally, which is a sorrow. I call him my Vincent van Gogh, though Vincent lived a life or luxury and ease compared to what Joshua has gone through.
Joshua is currently sitting on John’s porch in Accra. John has found him a place to stay and we are in the process of handling that.
Melbourne, the little baby whose father is in prison for driving a taxi without a license trying to support his family, is presently huddling with his mother and siblings in the school compound there.
www.dailykos.com/...
I don’t know about any of the others. Zenabu and Haddi and their little baby girl Vicky were still living in the camp , I think. I have no knowledge of their situation.
I am scrambling to find information.
I weep for Gaza, but if you have a few tears to spare Buduburam is worthy of some today, too.
I will try to update.
I am sorry if my stories are always so sad but the people I am writing about are sad about it too. They are suffering and no one gives a sh** about them.
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Just a little update. John has found a place for Joshua to stay in a neighboring village so at least he will not be homeless for the next six months. Melbourne’s family are still in need but one thing at a time.