Closing Reflections

AuthorDjimet Dogo and Barbara Tint
Pages177-183
Closing Reflections 177
The following are excerpts from a conversation between Djimet and Barbara, held
after the project was completed. Having worked together for four years on DDP, they
sat down and reflected on what had transpired.
Djimet: When you called me about the dialogue project, for me it was something
that was way overdue, because all refugees, even immigrants, who
arecoming here, are coming from war‐torn countries and most of the
refugees living here are communities or tribes or ethnic clans that are
warring each other–either inside the country between different groups
or between different countries.
Barbara: Well, I haven’t always been glad you said yes (laughing), but I am mostly
glad you said yes to this project.
Djimet: Why did you want to do this?
Barbara: We’ve always been involved with doing dialogue with different groups of
people. And we had a significant number of African students in our
program. Running into John that day who told me there were new refu-
gees coming from Rwanda and Burundi and that there were potential
concerns in those communities just struck me. We began to think about
doing some dialogue and reconciliation work with some of the popula-
tions here in Portland. A lot of my work is international and it occurred
to me that we have international work right here. There is such a great
need in these populations when these issues are not addressed as they
move into resettlement. How do you think it went?
Djimet: The project was such a success. The main success of the project is that for
the first time we were able to bring different warring or opposing groups
together. As you know, the first week of the project was really tense. People
were not trusting each other. People were afraid to even eat or drink water
there. I remember one participant told me this was the first time she was
able to talk to a Tutsi woman because she was so afraid that they were not
going to talk to her. She talked to them, but this was the first time, through
the project, that she sat down and talked directly with them. Another thing
is between the Congolese and Rwandese. One of the successes, while we are
having this project, the Congolese were having their party. And they invited
a Rwandese Tutsi. That was amazing, because since the war started in
Eastern Congo, there was no Rwandese participating in Congolese events
or Congolese participating in Rwandese events. Even the Congolese leader
who I tried to bring into the project, she told me that she was a member of
parliament in Congo and she end up being a refugee, losing everything
because of the Tutsi. So there is no way she was going to come and sit in a
room with a Tutsi. And this same lady, a few weeks later, told me, “Youknow
what? I think this is the only way we can solve our problems.” And since
that project, we see people–different Somali groups that were not talking
to each other–talking together, having meetings in different apartments.
It’s just amazing what the project has done. Even though we cannot forget
what happened, we have to forgive and move forward. For me I think the
project did an extreme job, and I wish it can be replicated in other parts of
the U.S. where people are facing the same problem.

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