Meheba, in the Northwest of Zambia has a famous past: the first road to the camp was built by the Angola IMPLA army which used it during the war for the independence. In 1971, with the arrival of the Mozambicans, the place was officially identified as a "refugee camp".

The year 1998 saw the arrival of 2,000 Rwandans. They were the first in the sad history of refugees in the world, to have walked a distance of almost 4000 km. flying from the West of Rwanda till Zambia. On their way they met with two other wars: that of the DR Congo and that of Angola.

When I arrived into the camp the Rwandans introduced me to the most important person of the group, the one who had encouraged them and kept them united throughout their long journey: the local Midwife. She is still the most respected person in the camp today, in spite of the required increase in fees for a delivery: 300 kwacha, that is 1.50 USA dollars.

In MEHEBA we live within the camp itself. With the years, it has grown to resemble a Zambian village. There are five of us of five nationalities in my JRS team. We work in collaboration with the Episcopal Conference of Zambia, with the hope of handing over the various services for refugees, to the Conference in a few years' time.

Adaptation to my new surroundings has been relatively easy. Having lived in Belgium for a time, I am better able to understand the refugees from the Great Lakes Region. I continue to observe and to ask questions, to better grasp what is happening around me. I believe that inculturation also happens when we can acknowledge differences.

Monique Racine (Kasama - Zambia)

Sr. Marguerite-Marie Luc tells us about her work in Marseilles:

" Marseilles with its 950,000 inhabitants came to birth and develop through immigration. Every wave of immigration was marked by suffering, sometimes even by violence, but in fact, it always resulted in renewed riches and new development. It is in this pluralistic context that Sr. Margurite-Marie pursues her mission.

"I live this Church service in many dimensions:

• Through a listening attitude and vigilance. I am attentive to what the immigrants are really living in Marseilles, in the urban areas, in the outskirts and in the world of the seamen. I am especially supportive of the Christians living these situations.
• Accompanying the Catholic communities of foreign origins (from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Madagascar, and ethnic groups from different African countries, from Italy, Spain, Poland, the Antilles and Mauritius…) We help them to find people coming from the same countries, to remain faithful to their roots they and to keep alive the riches of their faith experience.
• We favor their integration in the Church of Marseilles. Two among them (Vietnamese and Senegalese) are members of the Pastoral Council of the Diocese.
• A service for justice through active participation in actions defending the rights of immigrants.
• Through encounters with other religious traditions, with a particular attention to Islam.
• A service of hospitality and for creating awareness among Christian communities. Welcoming the stranger is today an area where our Church can give credibility to its fidelity to the Gospel.

Marked by a six-month "occupation"!

When a group of 'Sans Papiers' (without residence papers), occupied the Diocesan Center for six and a half months, I personally was at the heart of this situation, as the Archbishop had asked the Diocesan Service to Migrants to accompany these people in their distress.

Therefore, every day for 6½ months, I ventured forth to discover the faces of men and women… of entire families (Comorans, Sub Saharans, North Africans), who had a name, a history, with a future more often dramatic, and who were crying out their distress. What future, what life, what dignity for a people whose identity had become the 'sans papiers' (no papers).

I was able to witness a "successful coexistence" even if there were tensions. People from different cultures, who did not know one another and shared the same precarious material conditions.

I was bombarded by questions: What must be done? What can we do? How to create a greater awareness among Christians, in a society that pretends to ignore the situation and considers these people to be 'clandestine'?

I was riddled with fears: fear of the future, fear of the hunger strike (which lasted for 3 weeks), fear of the takeover of their movement by certain groups, etc.

These were long of struggle which finally ended cordially, with the gratitude of the "sans papiers" for the Church, for the hospitality that was given them, even if, at times there were reticence on our part.

The "Sans Papiers" themselves claimed: "The Church enabled us to come to know one another in our differences, to accept one another; because involved in the same struggle, and because secure on private grounds, we learned to struggle, to respect one another in our struggle and to respect others. And with all that we acquired a dignity."

Even though the "occupation" is over, the distress of people without legal papers, without rights is always there under our eyes, and it continues to call for a Christian presence, a nearness, a solidarity.

Isn't it at the very heart of ambiguous situations that solidarity happens? Isn't it at the very heart of ambiguities that a witness of Jesus Christ can be given?

As for myself, these months were 'costly' for me, but the price paid, enriched me. I acquired values of encounter, of dialogue, of sharing with the poor, the excluded, the people that our society rejects in the background. But they are the ones that become lighthouses in our lives.

The "other" is that part of myself that I do not yet know… so how can I not love him/her?

Sr. Marguerite-Marie Luc