Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is releasing a series of five video testimonies from refugees and migrants displaced by April’s wave of xenophobic violence in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal to displacement camps in Chatsworth and Isipingo set up by local authorities.

The organisation hopes that the videos will, in the build up to Africa Day (25 May), showcase the plight of those affected to both South Africans and the world at large, and to encourage people to share their stories as a starting point to inspire solidarity for survival and to stop xenophobia.

Each of these stories exposes the harsh reality of life as a kwere kwere in South Africa: persistent xenophobia that leads to healthcare exclusion, a denial of protection and unpredictable violence from friends and neighbours. Most testify to people continuously on the run: having first fled war and poverty, they now struggle to survive in a hostile South Africa. A number of them experienced similar violence in 2008.

Other videos will question the idea of nationality and emphasize a shared humanity and entitlement to be treated the same as anyone else.

The first video in the series details the story of Elvira Modesero, who came to South Africa in 2004, after fleeing ongoing civil conflict in Burundi. She studied nursing at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and currently works at St Mary’s missionary hospital, Pinetown, Mariannhill. After a wave of xenophobic attacks hit KwaZulu-Natal, Elvira and her family fled their home in Chatsworth, Durban, to seek refuge in one of three displacement camps, along with nearly 6 000 other foreign nationals. Elvira remains in the Chatsworth camp, having taken an extended leave of absence. Her husband is an unemployed teacher. She remains uncertain about her future in South Africa, too scared to return to her Durban home, and unable to go back to strife-hit Burundi.

Video commissioned by MSF

The videos were filmed and edited by Durban-based Scholars & Gentlemen