From Crisis to Calling

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

After the Rescue Operation by Sasha Chanoff

Jacob Batend

Our arrival in the refugee camp in Cameroon was both joyous and terrible. The reunions of family members—people who hadn’t known if their spouses or children would make it out—were like nothing I’d ever seen. But then there was Jacob’s wife. With her two children standing nearby, she broke down and fell into Sheikha’s arms, completely overwhelmed that we didn’t have Jacob with us.

For some time we had no information about Jacob. Then we heard: he was still alive. Congolese soldiers had tried to bring him to a prison where he would have been executed, but the International Committee for the Red Cross representative intervened and made sure he was returned to the safe ...