RU Talks
By Samuel Ioron Foundation
RU TalksFeb 03, 2023
Episode 16: Gender as a Barrier to Girl's Education at Camps
Education is often inaccessible to underprivileged or conflict-affected societies. However, when there are provisions for education, girls in these societies are more likely to be out of school.
This episode highlights gender barriers that hinder access to the girl child’s education.
Episode 15: Importance of Setting Up Alternative Schools at Camps
We just celebrated International Education Day with a profound theme for 2023, which states, "to invest in people, prioritize education”. Children in displacement settings often have no access to education and talk more of a qualitative one. We must prioritize their education and create pathways for equitable access to education for them.
Episode 15 delves into the lack of educational facilities at the camp and often in host communities. We hope this episode reminds us of what we must do to ensure children in a displacement setting access education in time too.
Episode 14: Health Issues
When concerns about Health arise at the camp, the key stakeholders must work to provide health access. In this episode, we explore the options open to residents at the camp.
Episode 13: How NGOs Support the Camp
Organisations support people in communities, and this episode depicts some of the ways non-profit and non-governmental organisations come together to provide assistance.
Episode 12: Is Healthcare adequate at Camps?
Several residents are experiencing different difficulties at the Camp. In this episode, we explore some of those difficulties.
Episode 11: Vandefan
Vandefan is known in the camp to be talkative; he is also known as the person who sees it all at the camp; however, the camp officials have caught up with all his troubles and are working to handle them. On the other hand, the growing issues between the residents and their host community are receiving the needed attention and a call for peace settlement is entered by the camp officials.
Episode 10: The Domestic Violence Case
Content Warning: Sexual violence, Domestic Violence.
Camp officials hold a meeting to settle the domestic violence issue at the camp. Community boys attack Vandefan.
Episode 9 : Yua and her friend's lived experiences at Camp
Yua and her friends discuss what life at the camp looks like, and Sule also has an encounter with Oga Richie about the distribution of items at the camp.
Episode 8: Sexual Exploitation in Camps
Content Warning: Sexual exploitation, rage, sadness, abuse and violence. Learn More...
Despite complaints from camp residents, exploitation and sexual manipulation continues. Officials in charge of distributing relief items donated by government and external bodies continue to request outrageous favours in exchange for relief items.
Episode 7: Sex for Essentials
Content Warning: Sexual abuse, exploitation, and rape.
We have often referred to the camp’s residents, particularly survivors, and victims of sexual abuse, as being "Victims Twice Over". In this episode, we will begin to see for ourselves, perhaps, even understand why this is so.
Episode 6: Camp Officials are Selected at the Camp
Camp leaders are unveiled. Host community members start harassing IDPs and discussing their plights and challenges, including issues with the distribution of items on the camp.
This circumstance prompted us to draft and design a distribution model for use I camps which can be found here: www.samuelioronfoundation.org
Episode 5 : Settling in at the Permanent IDP Camp
Survivors have moved from a temporary site to a more permanent shelter provided by the Government. How do the residents settle into their new living situation? Is it conducive? Has enough been done?
This episode exposes life at the camp and the grievances of the people living in displaced camps in some parts of Nigeria.
Episode 4: A glimpse of the living conditions at the IDP Camp
A popular mindset people have about residents at the camp is that food is in abundance. The lived experiences of residents here show us, what really it is like to live at the camp.
Episode 3: The Mass Burial and Planned Reprisal
Content Warning: Solemn words, screams and mourning.
The bereaved have gathered the remains of their loved ones for a mass burial organised by the government.
As expected, the people are filled with mixed emotions of shock, anger, fear, denial, and helplessness.
The youths are bitter and angry and have vowed to deal their attackers the same blow and restore their lost dignity.
Will they succeed in their plans? Only one way to find out.
Episode 2: Ambush, guns and Slaughter.
Content Warning: Sounds of gunshots, screams and cries.
Do rumours become a reality?
People panic day in and night out, awaiting a sane environment that has become an illusion. Rumours of attacks are heard like whispers, but do these rumours hold true?
What happens to Yua or the likes of her and their families?
What becomes of the farmlands, the source of livelihood for many families?
And how about the lives of the people living in these places, in their homes?
What happens to them?
Episode 1: The Rumours of Herdmens Invasion
Rumours spread around in kwali about the herdsmen’s attack, and in hushed voices, some people deny the news while others plan to run away.
Rumours happen so frequently that people have come to accept them as a normal part of life. But when the rumours involve a threat to life, property, and source of livelihood, it ceases to be normal and impossible to ignore.
It is a normal day. People are moving about their everyday activities, and the rumour spreads like wildfire that there might be an attack. But the villagers do not know what to believe anymore as there have been many of these rumours in the past, but nothing happened.
Will this particular rumour come to pass? Only one way to find out.
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Trailer: Voices and tales from the communities: "Wahala Wey Dey IDP Camp"
Content Warning: Violence, Screams, and Attack.
All names of people and places are fictional. Still, the stories shared depict real-life happenings drawn from stories of the survivors and interviews conducted under the Rural-Urban Rightful Project.
Background
Villages in the middle belt region have suffered several attacks and displacement due to the Herdsmen-Farmers crisis, and this has created ripple effects not only on the lives of the affected and their families but communities and the Nation as well; this has direct consequences on farming and food production, shelter, increased insecurities, gender-based violence amongst others.
The Rural-Urban Rightful (RU) investigated the happenings in some of these camps and conducted co-production works, interviews and held focus group discussions, sensitisation which prompted the creation of the “Wahala Wey IDP Camp”, a short audio drama series of 32 episodes and discussion depicting some of the happenings from rumoured attacks, eventual displacements until the creation of the camps and the lived experiences of displaced people particularly women hosted on the podcast.
The casting, scripting and final production is a collaborative work of the Samuel Ioron Foundation workers, volunteers, and some survivors living at the IDP Camp.
Story plot
The Kwali village is a small one located in the North Central or Middle Belt, and it has surrounding villages like Utak and Ashitile as neighbours.
The people of Kwali were farmers who farmed and traded in Yams, Rice, Millet, Vegetables and other essential crops. The farmers of each person were located next to each other, with the village having access to one big river - the Kwa, as it was called. The Kwa provided people with drinking, cooking and bathing water, including neighbouring villages. It had a wooden bridge across the river to enable passage to town and the nearby church and school at the other end of the village.
Kwali had a population of approximately 370,000 people, including children. About 7,000 children were students at the Kwali high school, the only public school the village could boast about, with a Government Secondary School that boasted over 11,000 students.
The Kwali people had markings on their faces and wore native attires that distinguished them from other villagers. The village was peaceful and often traded with people from different parts of the Gaav State and sometimes other states in the Nation.
In this village lived Yua, a 13-year-old girl who was a student at the Government Secondary School. She lived with her parents and siblings in one of the round huts overlooking the hill close to the river, separating it from the school.
Yua was an intelligent girl and was praised all over the village. Petite in size and shape, brown-skinned with large eyes, her voice was sultry and cracked when she spoke. She was in Ss 1 and was planning on becoming an Architect with a vision to develop Kwali. She and her friends were often seen chatting and making circles on the ground - drawings that depict what Kwali would look like in the near future.
Unbeknownst to Yua, her friends, and the people of Kwali, all that dream, the peace, and the calm was about to change.