My name is Riziki Shabane. I am a 16 year old refugee girl residing at the Malindza Refugee Camp in Eswatini. I was born on the 02/05/2006 and came to stay at the camp on 201
Living at Mpaka refugee camp, my childhood was good under the circumstances, we were adequately provided for by the camp administration under the Eswatini government. But as I grew up, life started to change negatively. For example, at the camp communal kitchen where every refugee got food some major changes occurred. The norm had been that all refugees both old and new arrivals were provided with daily meals. This changed to only new refugees getting daily provision while those old in the camp only started getting meals only on Thursday. Because the camp is located in the Lowveld, the water is a bit salty since its groundwater from boreholes and there is no means to purify or desalt it before use.
There is a high population in the camp with new arrivals on every other day yet the camp infrastructure isn’t adequate for everyone. This means families have to share housing and this doesn’t always work out well when it comes to maintenance of the same resulting in houses staying with broken items e.g windows because of arguments on who should fix those.
Life is not as I wish it to be as a teenager mainly because my parents are not employed. We all have to fend as a family by doing small businesses like selling sweets and chips at school for a living in addition to the support from the camp administration. My dad always wakes up in the morning to go out to find jobs to make whatever little income he can get. My mom sells cigarettes for a living. This is not a life I wanna live as a teenager, I wish to live a better life with my family. Such conditions have made me resolve to work hard to try and better my life through education. My dream is to be educated like all other normal teenagers and grow to have a good job or income-generating venture. I wish to be an inspiration to others and I wish to build them a huge house for my family in the future. L am currently doing form 2 at school. Still, I am at risk of not finishing school because donor organizations like World Vision that paid for our education are undergoing financial hardships and may not continue supporting our education as they don’t have enough money to pay for all of us. Life has been hard but I just managed to get by with my family.
But not all is bad at the camp, there are times to cherish. The best thing to happen to me and my friends was the arrival of a Taekwondo instructor, Master Sizwe Mabuza, at the camp in 2020 January. He came with his Next Generation Taekwondo Academy coaches and friends to introduce the art of Taekwondo to us at the camp. We never knew what Taekwondo was but we loved the displays and talks he delivered and we were keen to get closer to trying it and understand what they did. From that day I joined Taekwondo and fell in love with it each day that came. It kept us busy and always gave us something to look forward to. It was very interesting a challenge to take up and try new things everyday and this encouraged us a lot. The physical and theoretical lessons have helped us cope with life better at the camp. I am now physically fit and also happy with my health and how it has shown me why I need to take care of myself both spiritually and emotionally as well as physically. I am asthmatic but ever since I joined Taekwondo my asthma attacks have been rare. I study better, I don’t get tired easily and I also sleep very well.
I joined Taekwondo because I loved it, Taekwondo is a good sport to do. Many people were against me joining Taekwondo and told me that I shouldn’t join it because it just a waste of time and would not help me in any way. They said I would have muscles like a boy and most important they said that I’m asmatic if I do it I will die but I didn’t mind them and continued doing it. I have never been so asthma free in my life, now I hardly use my spray.
