Working for the rights of mothers and children


May 11, 2011

Stella Mkiliwane Photo: Carol Fouke-Mpoyo/CWS

Stella Mkiliwane Photo: Carol Fouke-Mpoyo/CWS

Stella Mkiliwane brings her own experiences as a refugee mother from Zimbabwe to her work with the Refugee Ministries Centre, a Church World Service partner in Johannesburg, South Africa.

A family therapist and social worker by training, her work for an international humanitarian organization in Zimbabwe exposed her to the suffering of her fellow citizens, especially to hunger and lack of medical care in rural areas.  (See video below.)

“Under such circumstances you could not avoid discussing the political situation in the country,” she said.  “I didn’t know who was amongst us, and I realized too late that I was at risk.”  She fled Zimbabwe in 2007 after being abducted, interrogated and threatened by security agents.

“When I arrived in South Africa, I couldn’t bring my children along with me immediately,” Mkiliwane recounted.  “And I had to take the risk of getting them smuggled into the country because I couldn’t get them documents from my own government for them to travel in.

“I have a daughter who was 3 years old then, and my son was only 8 when they were smuggled – by people that I didn’t know but because I didn’t have a choice.  A lot of mothers go through that, and some are not as lucky as I was that my children arrived to me safely.  Some children get raped or a lot of things happen along the way.”

Soon after arriving in South Africa, Mkiliwane got help from – then began volunteering with – the Refugee Ministries Centre.  Now, as the RMC’s director of operations, she administers a growing program of protection and advocacy for better policies and services for refugees and asylum seekers – especially mothers and children – throughout South Africa.

In South Africa, refugees and asylum seekers must queue outdoors for hours, even days, to gain access to government Refugee Reception Offices, where they get the documents allowing them to remain in the country legally.

Thanks in large part to Mkiliwane’s insistence, “women with small babies, women who are aged and sick, children in school uniforms, and small children get first preference at any refugee reception office,” she said.  “We have an agreement with the government that these people are supposed to be prioritized.  Women cannot be sleeping outside throughout the night, because they are more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.”

Refugee women in South Africa also face challenges getting access to employment and to health care for themselves and their children.

“They are not treated with respect,” Mkiliwane said.  “They are shouted at and called all names in public transport, when they go to hospitals because they are pregnant, and when they want to look for employment, because they are refugee women.  They are at the mercy of whoever they come across.”

In response, the Refugee Ministries Centre has built relationships with the Gauteng Province’s health department and intervenes when refugee women and children are at risk of being “compromised in terms of access to health care and immunization.”

“We also try to place women in employment,” she said.  “We give contacts in churches, and we have contacts in the corporate sector.  And in our program, 70 percent of our interpreters are women,” given preference “because they are the most vulnerable.”

Refugee children’s access to primary and secondary school education is another challenge.  Mkiliwane’s own story is a case in point.  “My children failed to access school for awhile because my papers were not yet ready and they were not allowed schooling at a school of my choice.

“So I had to settle for whatever school I got, which was very xenophobic to my children.  They were bullied left, right and center because of language barriers, because of their being different from local children.  And I always wondered every day when I left them at school whether when I came back they would still be safe and whether I’d find them there when it was time to pick them up.”

Subsequently Mkiliwane was able to get her son into a better school.  Now 11, “he’s adjusted very well and is beginning to regain his self-esteem.  My daughter is doing great, too.  She’s 7 years old.  She’s settled in well now.  She has friends.  And the school she’s going to now is a school that doesn’t discriminate against foreigners.”

On May 3, the New York City-based Women’s Refugee Commission honoured Mkiliwane with a Voices of Courage award for her work to improve the lives of her fellow refugees.  The Commission advocates for laws, policies and programs to improve the lives and protect the rights of refugee and internally displaced women, children and young people, including those seeking asylum – bringing about lasting, measurable change.  An estimated 80 percent of all refugees are women, children and young people.

“What makes me continue to work in the RMC, no matter how difficult sometimes the situations are,” Mkiliwane said, is “I would never think of being anywhere else than working and fighting for the rights of mothers and children.”