Somalia: Dying a little every night

03 September 2008

So there you are. Your late afternoon discussions are over for today and you go back to your plot. You eat the rest of your daily meal ration, and make small improvements to your shelter for the night ahead. You put on a confident face for your spouse and children and tell them the growing lie that “everything will be alright.” For now, they believe you, but increasingly you don’t. The sun-sets and you go inside your shelter to lie down with your family. That moment of calm arrives after a day of activity, when finally you can reflect on your situation. You die a little at that moment, and then go to sleep.

An expression I’ve been hearing a lot lately is “donor fatigue.” The camps have been here for 17 years, and there is no foreseeable improvement in the situation causing this population displacement. It’s likely that the camps will continue to exist here for many years to come. Foreign donors are getting discouraged that their aid is not bridging a gap for the refugees, but is instead becoming a permanent solution, costing millions of dollars a year. Maybe they are losing interest too. We can’t use the all-powerful word “emergency” here, as the numbers are long-term trends and timelines are measured in years.

What will be the fate of these people? I don’t know. I do know that without that piece of plastic for shade and shelter, without the plot of land and place of belonging when everywhere else rejects them, without that jerry can for water and the tap stand to fill it, without that basic food every day, and without the occasional fragments of hope that they find within themselves when they receive these random acts of assistance, they would die even more each night.

Read more accounts from Steve's journey to the camps, based on conversations with camp residents...

Intro
Fleeing atrocity
Life in transit
A constant struggle – Life in the camp

MSF worked in the Dadaab camps on a permanent basis from 1991 until 2004 when we handed over to other medical NGO's. Since then we have assisted the population during recent flooding and cholera emergencies. This report was taken during a recent exploratory mission with the mandate to assess the needs of the newly arrived refugees.