SARCS's Tracing Department is part of a Cape Town network of service providers for refugees, called Tutumike  (the word means 'working together' in Swahili) and the network is collaborating with the Executive Mayor of Cape Town in a commemoration at Iziko South African Museums on Monday.

The event will commence at 12:30 and end at 14:00. The theme for World Refugee Day this year is 'It takes Courage to be a Refugee' and Tutumike has arranged a skills exhibition exhibition to indicate the contribution refugees can make.

World Refugee Day – 20 June – was promulgated by the United Nations General Assembly. We in South Africa have taken responsibility for refugees entering our country as our government has ratified the Geneva Convention of 1951, as well as the Protocol in 1967 and the Organisation of Africa Unity Convention of 1969. On Friday18 June 2005, nine non government organisations (Tutumike) will gather to commemorate the event. On this day throughout the world we commemorate the plight of the refugees and reflect on the circumstances worldwide that force people to flee their homes and seek refuge in other areas or other countries.

World Refugee Day is significant to us at Tutumike because, as people who have experienced violence at various levels and displacement, refugees are people to whom we aim to provide a service. Many refugees have experienced trauma in their countries of origin and during their journey to South Africa and they have by no means reached a place of “safety” once they have received South Africa. A refugee is faced with many stresses, some common to refugees across the world, and others more specific to South African circumstances.

In South Africa refugees are confronted by an arduous process of seeking asylum, inadequate material relief, the need to adapt to a new culture and language, discrimination in accessing services and gaining employment, as well as xenophobia and intolerance. They also often experience enormous problems in accessing education and medical services. An opportunity to a life of dignity and self worth has been removed from refugees and currently in South Africa there is very little opportunity for them to restore or regain a sense of dignity and adequate self esteem.

Many people who are refugees display incredible strength and resilience, not unlike our own people in the light of what we suffered and how they suffer. As we have fought and gained our basic human rights, so we would like to see basic human rights and respect attributed to refugees so that they can live in a dignified manner and thus enhance their general mental health, thereby contributing to South African society and the African continent as a whole.

This year the theme is “It takes courage to be a Refugee” and the focus is on the contribution refugees can make to South Africa through their qualifications and skills.

We as Tutumike, a network that strives to work together to improve refugee lives, hope that, through this commemoration, we can assist in raising awareness and increasing the knowledge of the people of South Africa on the subject of refugee issues.

The organisations represented at Tutumike are:

• Catholic Welfare and Development (Bonne Esperance)
• Trauma Centre for Survivors of Violence and Torture
• UCT Legal Aid Clinic
• Cape Town Refugee Centre
• The South African Red Cross Society
• Agency for Refugee Education, Skills Training and Advocacy (ARESTA)
• Planned Parenthood Association of South Africa (PPASA)
• Scalabrini Refugee Services
• Disabled Refugee Association