THEATRE VERSUS OPPRESSION
Registered Charity SC039092
Using applied theatre to bring about positive change and development

What is COBURWAS?

‘Right now things are not good because many are fleeing the DRC due to the war in the Goma area. In Kyangwali they have told the Acholi to leave the village of Rwenyawawa to make room for the new Congolese refugees. I have been hearing stories about families making their way into Uganda. One man’s wife was raped to death by rebels and he fled with his three children. Two of the youngest died from hunger along the way and he only has an eight year old child with him now. He is considered the lucky one, simply because he survived.

In December 2007 the census report was more than 19,000 refugees, but then in the March census it was down by 2,000. The Sudanese were returning to the Sudan. But unfortunately it is growing in number again.

The camp is an UNHCR settlement however they have been told to be self-reliant so they do not receive much, if any, assistance.

Think Humanity/Coburwas Club was given land for the orphanage in December 2007 and just last month we received land for our livestock project.’ 

COBURWAS - Ours is a long story!
Daniel, Bahati, Joseph and Amani are the four young boys who began COBURWAS. Here they explain in their own words. On December 5th 2007 we, the  young refugees, gathered ourselves and initiated a family that would toil through digging (farming) to solve the problems we faced.

The problems of the orphans were many – many of the remaining orphans forced themselves to get married to nationals, others used sex for survival while boys died trying to work for food, in other words they worked as slaves. Too much work, mistreatment but the target for all was only food!! Widows and widowers became many. What pained me is that one of the humanitarian workers said that the solution is to those who have survived death are to marry each other again. When refugees continued to cry another leader said that we are not better than millions of refugees who died in TING TING (DRC).

We realized that the only possible solution is to educate youth who will later be solutions to our community’s problems.

I, Daniel, Bahati, Joseph, Amani and other fellows came up with vigour as we could not hold back the tears in our eyes in the first meetings thinking and seeing what was happening and a big responsibility we were to take in our hands. Trying to emphasize to become servant and sacrificial leaders of the community through love, peace and unity was emphasized.

Digging is a hard work but the only way to raise a little money. Through it we answered questions that had been unanswered for several years. We try to meet the demands of the community through Jesus our general role model. Through Coburwas, we shall weep away the tears of the crying generation as we build strong bridges for the rest to cross.

SUCCESS THROUGH PAIN:

1. We have built an orphanage building that will accommodate young orphans as well as getting a unique education at the premises.

2. The club rent a house (hostel) for refugee students who can then get a quality education in the near by town. The club raise food and some other basic needs that are needed in the running of the hostel. More than 32 students stay together in this building under Coburwas management.

3. We have done several community works like building huts for orphans and widows, road repair etc.

4. Through the money we dig for we given a bursary to 2 students and more others get scholastics, fees and other needs from the club depending on their problems.

5. Through Club initiation more than 5.000 mosquito nets have been distributed in the camp by fighting malaria that takes away a kid in every 30 second worldwide especially Africa.

6. 20 widows got small loans. They run business and keep animals that will help them to take care of their children and send them to school in future.

I am not able to exhaust all what Coburwas does, but I hope you get the picture. We are highly thirsty of your training. We need your help in order to change the world. We are ready not only to work but even to die at work.