Without a Homeland: Love, Loss and Resilience at Qatrom Refugee Camp

by Bobbie Lord

In May 1999, Bobbie Lord got on a plane. She was headed to the Qatrom Refugee Camp in Korҫё, Albania to assist the Kosovar Albanians who had fled ethnic cleansing. It wasn’t the first humanitarian tour for Bobbie, who already had several years of experience working in countries including Kenya, Guatemala and Zambia.

This time she was working with Relief International, under the umbrella of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She had been assigned the job of camp manager at Qatrom and its 3,000 refugees. Despite her experience in humanitarian work, Bobbie was uncertain. At sixty, was she too old to handle the pressure? How could she ensure the refugees’ health and safety while also helping them deal with their trauma and boredom?

Heartbreaking and compassionate, Without a Homeland recounts the courage and resilience of a people facing unimaginable obstacles, and one woman’s mission to give them hope that someday, they would return home.

185 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 23, 2022

Reviews

[Liralen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some twenty years ago, Bobbie Lord left for Albania to manage a refugee camp. It wasn't new work for her, but every situation and every culture is different, and not all challenges can be predicted.

Each latrine had two doors and a rudimentary stencil drawing of a man or a woman. Inside, the walls were rough to the touch. It was dark, and the air was stifling and hot. Footholds over the hole accommodated the stance of a man, but not that of women and children. (27)

Okay, that one is a challenge that could have been predicted—if even a single woman had been involved in the design of the latrines—but I do think that quotation illustrates some of the indignities of being a refugee: not enough to lost loved ones to war (or genocide); not enough to be driven out of your home, your town, your country; not enough to be forced to live in a constant state of uncertainty, without any choice in what you eat or when, or where you live or what health care you can get; not enough that it's suddenly no longer necessarily safe to take a shower (due to the risk of sexual assault)...but the fact that one of the most basic necessities of daily life, and something absolutely critical to a refugee camp, would be designed for—well, for the least vulnerable people in that camp, with no thought to the most vulnerable.

The book is somewhere between episodic and thematic. I'd have loved to see more development of some of the characters, though I imagine that would have been difficult more than twenty years after the fact. Perhaps most interesting is the fact that her time there included the formal end of the war—many of the people stuck in the refugee camp were able to go home, or to some version of home. To me that's intriguing just because I hear so often about refugee camps where people are stuck in limbo for years and years, with no resolution and no safe home to go to. Doesn't make the reality of returning to a war-torn home any easier, of course, but...interesting nonetheless.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a moving and interesting memoir of moving past life's troubles to find self-worth in doing refugee work. Helping to manage a camp in Albania - not her first camp experience - found this woman both physically close to yet remote from the Kosovo War. She encounters the cultural differences of the male-dominated, traumatized families while being overworked and exhausted trying to distribute donated supplies, set up fire (flame) response teams, appropriate food rations, etc. Breaking up the travail is moments of moving interaction with internees.

This is an easy read with short chapters.

[Elizabeth Meier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a literary book, but well written and a first hand account if someone who ran a refugee camp in Albania for fleeing Kosova during the Serbian war. The book.showcases her effective decision making, which primarily consisted of establishing a representational framework in the camp so that the refugees could have as much control as possible over their living conditions. She also built morale by organizing events that allowed people to express their experiences and share their culture. She herself remained productive by getting away when she could to take a break from the constant stress and work.This was an inspiring book.

[RONALD PEYTON · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting insight to volunteer opportunities around the world in troubled countries. Amazing the coordination of various NGO's that is necessary to make relief operations function, and the challenges of working in third world countries.