Life in Kakuma

by Vaidehi Ramanarayanan
 
Tara Newell sits in the plush airplane seat and leans over to look out the window at the vast endless sea of clouds below. She sits back in her chair, settles into it comfortably and closes her eyes. The cool air conditioned air felt good against her skin, unlike the dry and sultry heat of Kakuma. It’s been a few hours, but she still remembers it.

Kakuma refugee camp, initiated in 1992, is a camp in the northwestern part of Kenya. It holds close to 100,000 refugees from Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Congo, and other countries. Most of these refugees fled from their country to escape war. The majority of refugees in Kakuma are from Sudan. Many of these people fled the civil war in their country, and made the long journey to the camp on foot. The civil war in Sudan began in the 1980’s and caused 2 million deaths due to war, famine and disease. More than 4 million people were displaced from southern Sudan, sometimes more than once. Many of these people found their way into refugee camps in and around Sudan. Kakuma is one the biggest refugee camps in the area.

Although Kakuma offers many refugees a chance to live again, they would argue that life is hardly easy. Most only stay there because they have no choice. Surely nobody would want to live in a place like that. Imagine leaving your country with the war following you on your heels. Your priority is surviving, finding food and water and staying safe. They make their way to a refugee camp hoping to receive shelter, safety and basic necessities, because they are desperate.They probably do not know that what they are getting into won’t make things much better for them.

Ms. Newell remembers seeing young children in the camp who were probably born there and never had life outside of it. And there were some adults who had stayed in the camp for so long, they had forgotten what it was like before they entered the place. She remembers seeing people in despair, not wanting to live their life in Kakuma, but not being able to get out either for refugees were not allowed to leave the camp. They have to obtain a special pass from the UN before getting out. Unless of course you were lucky enough to be sent overseas to restart your life. Unfortunately, only some get this opportunity, and majority of the refugees never leave the camp. A lot of them even die in the camps. Child mortality rates are extremely high, and disease and food and water shortages are major problem. In fact the UN agencies are blaming problems in food and water as the main cause of the spread of life-threatening diseases.

Malaria is the number one cause of death and illness among all refugees in Africa. This is caused by the polluted water, and breeding of a huge number mosquitoes in the area. Water borne diseases are also very common due to polluted water tanks. It causes cholera, dysentery, etc. The water quantities sometimes decreases, causing many people to be dehydrated. The standard amount of water refugees are allowed in a day is 20 litres, but sometimes they receive even lesser than this. Food is meagre, and people are given just about the amount of food that is necessary to stay alive. That doesn’t, of course rule the chances of malnutrition, because the standard diet doesn’t have a huge variety. The not-so-great medical care is meant to be able to treat the most common diseases, but the horrific living conditions are even causing people to die of preventable diseases.

Ms. Newell sits in the safe airplane, and her eyes tear up as she thinks about some of the terrible things she witnessed at the camp’s medical centre. She had walked in the hospital expecting a few people with serious illnesses, but had walked out of the building an hour later shocked and taken aback. The number of children and adults there was astounding, and the state that some of them were in was terrible. She couldn’t even bear to greet some of them because she knew they would be too weak to talkback. Of course she couldn’t visit the most sick ones, and she was glad for that because if what she had already seen was not the worst then she didn’t want to see anymore.

She had sat down with a few of them and those who could speak english told her some fascinating stories. The young men were all hoping to resettle in the US, but they knew all their chances were gone now that they had fallen sick. Ms. Newell had also visited some children, and although they couldn’t communicate well with each other, she felt so pitiful for them. Living in the camp is like a hostage life for many. Even at such terrible conditions, they were forced to stay inside the camp. Ms. Newell knew of some people who did get to go to bigger hospitals in the worst cases, but it rarely happened. She wanted to do something for these kids, wanted to somehow make things better. But after all that’s what she was there for, in a way. Once she got back home she would try her very best to get the word out to the public everywhere, to spread awareness about what was happening in places like this, and hopefully things will change.

Refugees aren’t always happy. Even if they feel like they are living an okay life, they don’t have much hope for their future. Generally, possessions are left at home, and most refugees come almost empty handed into the camp. They are too worried about their safety that they are simply hanging onto their lives while getting away. Once they get to the camp, they are given shelter and food and water, but of course they are not content. They just had to leave their entire lives behind. These refugees might be glad for the little they are getting in the refugee camp, but the they would much rather be in a state where this service wasn’t necessary. Most refugees hate having to be so dependent on the camp. The situation in a refugee camp might be slightly better than in some other places, but any refugee would say that all they want is to go back to their home and have a peaceful life. They all wish they never had to leave in the first place.

Most children in refugee camps have the opportunity to get primary and secondary education. This gives some hope for the people. Being literate and being able to speak english and having basic knowledge boosts confidence in the young kids. It makes them feel like they might have a chance in the real world. However once they grow older, they realize they actually don’t because refugees aren’t allowed to seek education or any work outside of the camp. Unless they get resettled somewhere they will never be able to get into the ‘real world’, no matter how much potential they may have, no matter how well they could do in university. Some get jobs in the camp for example, as a camp coordinator, but it doesn’t feel like a real thing. Many dream of getting a tertiary education, and getting a job in an actual city or town. But for most, it still remains nothing but a fantasy.

It isn’t a safe place to live in either. The refugees are in a very vulnerable state, both physically and mentally. Violence breaks out among the refugees often, even because of minor conflicts. Rape is also common. HIV is spreading in the camps in and around Kenya as well. It is definitely a place where people can get seriously traumatised, by 1) their past experiences with the war in their country or 2) the terrible condition they're currently in or 3) how hopeless their the rest of their life looks. One of the problems refugees face in the camp is loneliness. A lot of them lose one or more family members in the war, and some are all alone. Surrounded by thousands of other people, people who have families and people who have the people they care about with them, can be painful for the lonely. Losing a family is very hard, and while the pain is forgotten in the midst of war, as soon as they regain some stability in life, like getting into a refugee camp, the distress and misery will torment them.

One thing that really surprised Ms. Newell, was that when she talked to some of the adults in the camp, the ones who had been there for a long time, they all feel guilty. They feel bad that they were able to live in some sort of stable format, while they knew that people were still suffering in their country. They think that it is not right of them to live like that. They always have that feeling of sadness in them, because whether they are happy or not, someone of their own race is having it much worse. Ms. Newell was really astounded by the way these people thought about it.

The pilot makes an announcement over the intercom. The plane would be landing in about an hour. Ms. Newell looks forward to getting back to her home. She had learnt so much from this trip, met so many amazing new people, and was so glad that she had the opportunity to make a difference for these people, but there was absolutely no place like home, she thought. And if there was just one thing that she had learnt in the past week, it was that a refugee has no home, and it is all they ever want and all they ever wish for.

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