Citizens of the world.

Wita, far right, with her sister and another member of their doll making association.


Beatrice, on the left, during bag making training in 2006.

Last year I wrote about Dancille, my lovely friend in Kiziba Camp who was resettled with her family to Australia.

Last week, it happened again.

I arrived in Kiziba to find that Wita and Beatrice have also left, this time, thanks to the good hearts and open arms of the people of Finland.

I have a special fondness for these two women and also for the country that they will now call home.

Wita has been in our Income Generation Program since 2004, making charming dolls that portray the lives of refugees from a woman’s point of view. She went to Finland with her daughter and baby granddaughter, and is working to have her 18-year-old son join the rest of the family as soon as possible. In the meantime, her son has remained in the camp, joining a group of teenagers in another IGP association, carrying on his mother’s work by teaching the members of his group to make dolls.

Beatrice is the energetic, talented and tenacious leader of a group that learned to make nylon bags, and then baskets, and convinced us to rehabilitate a shelter for them to use as their workshop. I don’t know the details of her situation but I do know that she will make the most of the opportunity that she has found, just as she did here.

Amazingly, both of these women have already spoken by phone with family members who are still in the camp. They say that it is very cold in Finland, but that they are happy to be there, and the children have started school. Somehow having this connection with those who have left gives others hope that, as one of my friends said today, “God may open the door for me and my family, too.”

My fondness for Finland dates back to Steven’s junior year in high school, when he was an AFS exchange student in Espoo, near Helsinki. Finland was very good to him, and I know that it will be a good place for my Kiziba Camp friends as well.

Safe journey to all, and may we meet again.