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Empathy, listening mark Vivi Akakpo's work with refugees
Vivi Akakpo addressing Ogonis from Nigeria, who are living in terrible conditions outside a UNHCR camp in Benin.
Photo: All Africa Conference of Churches
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When Vivi Akakpo of the All Africa Conference of Churches talks about refugees, it is with a burning compassion and a heartfelt empathy.
As West Africa Regional Coordinator for the AACC's Ministry with the Uprooted, Vivi Akakpo spends a lot of time listening to the region's many refugees and internally displaced people. She goes out from her office in Lomé, Togo, to the camps to get firsthand information about the conditions of refugees and internally displaced people, and asks people to describe the experience of being uprooted.
"They answer, 'I wanted to die.' They say, 'I have no dignity.' 'I don't have a say in what I want to eat or do.' 'No one considers my views.' 'I feel a sense of being useless.'"
She reflects, "These people were just like me, with a house, a good job, a family. Because of war and genocide, they had to lose everything. Some have had to beg.
"All Africans are potential refugees," she says. "In Africa, we can become refugees overnight. I have seen even pastors become refugees. Conditions in our countries such as bad governance, insecurity, ethnic conflicts, greed, and abuse of power may put us on the move."
Vivi Akakpo's "heart for refugees" is among the gifts she brings to Church World Service as one of two international representatives to its 12-member Immigration and Refugee Program Committee. Newly appointed, she joined Doris Peschke, General Secretary for the Churches' Commission for Migrants in Europe, a CWS/IRP Committee member since 2002, at the committee's February 2005 meeting and CWS/IRP National Conference (held jointly with Episcopal Migration Ministries).
"Uprootedness is a global issue and must be tackled globally," Vivi Akakpo says. "The IRP Committee is an important venue for that work."
Steady, warm and approachable, Akakpo is as comfortable behind a pulpit as she is giving a workshop or engaging in conversation one-on-one. She shares wisdom from Scripture as easily as she addresses policy issues or refugees' realities.
According to the 2004 World Refugee Survey, Africa counts more than three million of the world's nearly 12 million refugees and asylum seekers, and more than 13 million of the world's 24 million internally displaced people.
"The situation in the whole continent is critical and unstable," Vivi Akakpo says. "For example, there are still 500,000 internally displaced people in Liberia, many of them in camps and not cared for. I was there in October 2004. The situation was horrible.
"More funding is needed to help in Liberia, and in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Darfur, Sudan, which have the worst humanitarian crises in the world and where more political pressure also is needed to stop the violence."
Vivi Akakpo dates her own exposure to refugee issues to a 1998 workshop on "Risking to Be with Uprooted People," hosted by the AACC's Lomé office. As an administrative assistant in that office since 1989, she was responsible for workshop arrangements, then attended it.
She recalls, "This workshop opened my eyes to the plight of the uprooted, and I felt it was good to be on their side."
Around about that time, the AACC was seeking a refugee program coordinator for West and Central Africa. A colleague encouraged Akakpo to apply, and she was hired. In 2000, the region was split and she became responsible for West Africa.
The program's top priority, she says, is to get the churches "involved in the uprooted program, and committed to it. The church is not different from the people. The church is the first circle of support people go to when they are uprooted. Even Muslims will go first to the church. People feel secure when they go to a church."
Working together with representatives from each country in the region, Vivi Akakpo aids AACC member churches in developing refugee assistance program proposals. Then she forwards the proposals to the World Council of Churches, which helps find funding.
The country representatives with whom Akakpo works provide "contact with the realities in each country and sub-region," she says. In turn, she values the CWS/IRP Committee as an important forum for Americans, Africans and, through Doris Peschke, Europeans to be in contact with each others' realities.
"It's good for someone from Africa to be on the committee," Vivi Akakpo says. "We'll bring the African perspective, including what the African churches would like the refugee program to be. We will share insight into what happened before people were uprooted, on people's culture, even on the best way to do interviews."
At the same time, "I'll share back home what people in the United States are going through to receive refugees. Refugees think they can be resettled easily in the United States, but they don't know about all the new regulations and 'reforms.' I want churches in Africa to know more about the asylum process."
During the CWS/IRP meetings in February, Vivi Akakpo accompanied affiliate staff from Ohio on visits to several U.S. Congressional offices. Back home, she serves periodically on All Africa Conference of Churches advocacy teams at meetings of the African Union, in which the AACC holds observer status.
"It's a little bit tricky," Vivi Akakpo says with a twinkle in her eye. "You can't raise your hand in the main meeting. We lobby in the corridors and talk about all the concerns of the churches, including uprootedness and its causes. We tell governments to help people come back home and feel safe. Look at all the people who are living outside of their country or even outside of Africa altogether," she remarks. "We can't talk about rebuilding Africa without them."
A Postscript: This February, Vivi Akakpo's country was thrown into crisis when long-time President Eyadema Gnassingbe died. Flouting Togo's Constitution, the military installed his son Faure in power. Widespread protest led to his stepping aside pending April 24 elections, in which he was declared the winner amidst charges of fraud. The opposition candidate also claimed victory.
Deadly street battles erupted between opposition protesters and Togo's military, and people fled to Benin and Ghana by the thousands. Togolese and international church partners had urged postponement of the elections, and now are pressing for nonviolent resolution of the political crisis.
Reached by phone April 29 in Lomé, Vivi described the looting, house raids, teargas, punctured tires, and fear. "My family, colleagues, and I are safe so far," she said. "We are just trying to be very careful."
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