“Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die forAnd no religion tooImagine all the people living life in peace...” from Imagine by John Lennon (lyrics007.com). The song Imagine was written by John Lennon in hopes of a peaceful world with no violence or brutality. In the Congo, there has been a war that started in 1998 and which is still going on until now. In general, the number of estimated victims of this particular war is over five million. Moreover, the families were torn apart and the survivors who successfully escaped to other neighbouring countries are living in an unsanitary conditioned refugee camps. Not only are there adults but there are young ones as well. In their childhood where they had the right to see the beautiful things in the world, instead they witnessed the terror and bloodshed. In this chaotic situation, there is one boy who is willing to help others. The fifth international children’s peace prize winner, Baruani Ndume, is offering his best to support child refugees like him. Through his access to radio, he reconnects the orphaned children and parents and shares problems young refugees are facing in Tanzanian refugee camp.
In the beginning, through mobilizing his all of available sources, Baruani reunites families, decreasing the number of orphaned refugees. While Baruani lived in the camp, he witnessed the injustice and hardship the children were facing. For this reason, he always wanted to help in some way the end the concerns of them. In fact, that is when he found Radio Kwizera, an organization that works for kids’ rights in Tanzania. In spite of limited resources, he has succeeded in setting up a radio programme in which he talks about problems and challenges with his peer refugee children (The International Children’s Peace Prize). In these poor circumstances, he still craved to help the others and he was able to fully utilize his insufficient opportunities to help the others rather than himself. As his program’s fame grew, he exploited it to help the young refugees in more various ways such as searching for their lost families. Accordingly, these actions of Baruani had a positive impact on the lives of the youngsters in the camp. In a like manner, he provided them hopes that they will find their parents. In addition, now they had someone to share their problems with rather than suffering alone. However, before Baruani’s handsome deeds, the children suffered terribly by getting abused daily by the adults. Their circumstances are often more grim as most foster parents are not financially strong enough to provide proper nourishment and clothing for their foster children or to support them in their education (The Kids Rights Millennium Development Goals Conference 2010). Since he have witnessed this circumstances the child refugees were living in, he would have felt a powerful need to save them. In the same fashion, due to being in the same situation, Baruani had definitely had an idea on how to help them in the most effective, possible way. Accordingly, Baruani was capable of bringing up their lives into a higher standard. On the whole, Baruani is bringing hope to the young refugees as he is reconnecting families through utilizing his accessible resources.
At last, being in the circumstances of refugee in an early age, Baruani knew exactly how to help the youngsters who are in the same place as him. Since Baruani was seven, he had lived in the refugee camp for nine years, experiencing the same as the other children. At first, his life in the camp started with being a foster child of a selfish woman. Correspondingly, he was always beaten up and was denied food and education. By reason of his background, he clearly knew what is was like for others as well. "Boys and girls with stories similar to mine could not easily express themselves and were keeping their pain inside," Ndume said. "Our radio programme makes them feel less alone." (The UN Refugee Agency) In fact, the child refugees probably had no one else to communicate with. As a result of his zeal to help, now they could have someone to share their burden with, and feel belonging. By means of his experience in the camp enabled him to understand the ways provide what they needed the most. As a result, his use of radio program grew successful in becoming a friendly hand to the children and providing them direction they should aim their lives to. “We as a group of twenty children move around the camp collecting ideas from our fellow children. We normally ask them what are their concerns or problems with life in the camp - in education, in services, in food, in supplies, their protection or other abuses that are happening in the camps.” (PBS Newshour Extra) The children in the camps feel isolated from society which could be due to the division in families and the devastations they faced during their journeys to reach the camp. As Baruani comprehends these ideas by living among them for years, he knows the importance to make them smile and how the smile could appear by just a simple process as talking to them. Surprisingly, these simple steps have enough potential to bring the child refugees realize the positive sides that are concealed behind the sadness. In essence, Baruani was capable of using his knowledge to support the others even though he was not in fine circumstances.
Baruani Ndume is continuing his lifelong mission to heal the scars of the war left on the innocent victims. In the same fashion, he is rejoining the families together, decreasing the number of orphaned child refugees in the refugee camps of Tanzania and counseling the young refugees to place a smile on their faces that got buried deep within them due to the pain that the war threw at them. Therefore, it is clear as a drop of water that Baruani deserves the International Child Peace Prize. His admirable deeds is something everyone in the world should look upon. It is not because he was chosen or outstanding that made him capable of doing such actions. It was his courageous, decisive heart that enabled him. Everyone has the same hearts deep inside. As a final point, we all need to realize it and force it out to action when the society necessitate them and our society will be a better place where there will be no refugees and other devastations.
