Senyana fled from internal conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and came to Rwanda, where, like many of her fellow residents in Nyabiheke refugee camp, Senyana has found that life has changed dramatically since the pandemic struck Rwanda.
“After a closure of all schools [and a] countrywide lockdown, all my children: Celine, John and Henriette are happy to continue their studies at home… [They do so] through a radio learning program for primary schools that was launched by the Rwanda Education Board in April 2020. My radio was [also] an efficient way to raise awareness and fight stigma arising from this COVID-19 pandemic. Today, we are aware that we should not shake hands anymore”.
Restrictions on her freedom of movement, and price increases for food and other basic commodities have hit her – and her family – hard. But like many of the lucky minority in the camp who have access to power - she has found her radio to be a lifeline.
Gihembe refugee camp hosts 12,302 refugees who fled the DRC. RE4R installed 62 solar streetlights which can be seen in the left of the photo. Credit: Edoardo Santangelo
Although life is still formidably hard, refugee camps in Rwanda have begun to improve access to energy – and opened up a range of subsequent developmental benefits - over the last few years. Nearly 60% of people still have no access to power for lighting or charging a phone and only one in four has access to anything but the most basic fuel with which to cook. But several humanitarian and development programmes have encouraged energy businesses to expand their operations into refugee camps, solar street lighting has come to Nyabiheke, Kigeme and Gihembe camps, and residents have increasingly been able to access new energy products and services for cooking, lighting and powering their homes. Meanwhile, humanitarian organizations have begun the process of ‘greening’ their existing operations by monitoring their consumption and producing a detailed assessment of opportunities to switch to renewable energy.
But then came the pandemic.
Little is known about how COVID-19 has changed the way that refugee households use energy. But this blog reflects on the learnings that the Renewable Energy 4 Refugees (RE4R) project collected in three camps in Rwanda between April 2020 and December 2020, both before and during the pandemic. How have pandemic restrictions changed the way that people use and pay for energy? How is access to energy helping (or hindering) refugees’ ability to cope during the pandemic? And can we draw out any lessons to ensure that the pandemic’s effects are not prolonged or debilitating?
COVID-19 and Rwandan refugee camps
Officially, Rwanda has had over 19,000 cases of COVID-19 and 265 deaths, but the likely rates are much higher since testing has been heavily centred on Kigali. Although the camps have reported cases, little is known about the rates of infection or transmission. Rwanda currently hosts nearly 150,000 refugees (largely from DRC and Burundi) and has six refugee camps which together house the majority of these displaced people.
Refugees are particularly at risk from the health issues associated with COVID-19 because they often have limited access to water, sanitation systems or health facilities (although the fact that 40% of refugees are under 18 years old perhaps counts in their favour) and also because people are closely clustered together allowing COVID-19 cases to spread quickly.
But, as Kurt Tjossem, regional vice president for East Africa at the IRC noted recently, the crisis is not only about health; the effects of lockdowns have perhaps been more significant than the health crisis for those affected by conflict and displacement(1).
Globally, it has been suggested that as many of 86% of refugees and migrants are in need of extra help since the COVID-19 crisis began, but only 21% report receiving additional assistance.
In Rwanda, full lockdowns between March and May, and again at the time of writing, have primarily affected Kigali, but other related restrictions on the movement of refugees, on the type of operations humanitarian agencies are allowed to perform, have increased the price of food and fuel, reduced remittances from relatives, and led to job losses that have all impacted on ‘normal’ life for those in camps. Figure 1 below highlights some of the personal changes that have affected refugees in Rwanda since the pandemic took hold.
Figure 1: Has anything changed in your personal circumstances since COVID restrictions were put in place?
Source: non customer monitoring survey, October 2020. Based on 97 people (71% female) split across the three refugee camps.
It shows that almost all of those surveyed – 74% of whom were single headed households and would have been classified by UNHCR as ‘vulnerable’– experienced significant personal challenges with the most prevalent being the inability to work, decreased income, restricted movement, price increases for food, and an overall increase in debts.
