10/29/2005

Waiting on the truck with her family, Niyikiza assumes that her journey is nearly over. Sadly, she was wrong. The next day, an RI group crossing the border from Goma into Rwanda, saw Niyikiza sitting on the ground with her family. They had been stopped at the border and held overnight without food or water. She said that an official at the Rwandan immigration check point had called her a “recycler” --someone who goes back and forth across the border, trying to benefit from relief packages from UN organizations. We gave her food and water and promised to try to get her moved to the UNHCR transit center in Gisenyi, Rwanda and then to her village of Bugesera near the capital of Kigali. When we called the UNHCR field officer in Gisenyi, Rwanda, about Niyikizsa’s situation, he was already on the case. She made it to the transit center and then to her village with hopes of starting a new life.