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.

Bibliography

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Kakuma Refugee Camp

by Wendy Qian

A piece of rope dangled across the uneven dirt road and a ‘stop’ sign, painted in Arabic and English, marked the border between South Sudan and Sudan. Miles down the dirt road lays the sprawling and fast-growing Kakuma refugee camp of Kenya. Tattered clothing caught on the branches of the thorn bushes. This is a ‘small city’ of thatched roof huts and tents. Beside the high piles of cooking pots, water jugs and mats was a haggard young girl trying to bring her younger siblings into the tent. The dark grey clouds swallowed the sky, tears of earth were rolled in upon the heavy clouds, a shelter of showers was waiting to be exhaled. The first rumble of the distant thunder soon came, by this time, all the residences of the Kakuma refugee camp were inside their huts or tents.

Refugee camps are set around the borders of Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya. The total number of refugees from South Sudan rising up to more than 2,000,000, and a single refugee camp is holding more than 60,000 south Sudanese refugees (1). Hundreds of refugees are still pouring in daily, seeking for safety, food and shelter.

The civil war in Sudan erupted in 1983 and has crossed over a course of 22 years. This civil war was between the (Arab) government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). As a result of the war, over 2 million people has lost their lives and over 4 million southern Sudanese has been displaced at least once during the war. Even though the war ended in 2005 with a peace agreement signed (2), the civil war has deeply affected the lives of the South Sudanese. People are displaced, children lost their parents, villages and homes are destroyed.

Coming across the border, children, walking alone or in small groups without adults, are seen daily as they make their way to the camp seeking for safety and a future. Families and individuals are also coming to the camp, seeking to food, water and shelter. Some of the refugees have been walking for days and some have been walking for months. They had no food or water along the way, some ate tree barks and drank from the puddles of muddy water. Many did not survive the walk to make it to the refugee camps. While crossing the rivers, some drowned, some were eaten by crocodiles and others were shot, the majority of walking were dehydrated and there were many children left parentless.

Many people are coming to the refugee camps seeking help. “We walked for four days with no food or water to reach the camp. We ate leaves and grass along the way to survive," said Marsa Usman. "We came because of the violence and hunger. There was no food left in our village.” Marsa came to the Kakuma refugee camp with her four young children. (3) The Kakuma refugee camp is already a home to 100,000 refugees according to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHRC).

At the entrance of the Kakuma Refugee camp, a myriad of signs and poster listed the sponcers of the camp: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Lutheran World Foundation and World Food Program. Hand made huts built from sticks, mud and metal scraps stood side by side, this was where the refugees lived.

The heavy raindrops hit against the tents like bullets from a gun as the wind roared like a angry beast. Above, the sky was black with the menacing rainclouds until the cracks of lightning broke the darkness. Despite of the pouring rain, the little girl came out of her hut, bringing a pot. She hurried to place it outside her tent and went back inside again. This was the third time rain visited the Kakuma refugee camp that week.

The Kakuma Refugee Camp is located in Turkana District of the northwestern region of Kenya. Just like the other refugee camps around Sudan, it serves refugees who have been forcibly displaced from their homes during the war. It was established in 1992 and this camps hosts 21% of the total refugees in and around Kenya (4). People came to the refugee camps seeking for shelter, food and medical aids, however all they find is more challenges and tough conditions to overcome.

Problems in the camp

UNHRC: “The provision of life-saving assistance and important services is becoming increasingly difficult due to limited funding to cater for the growing population, particularly in the shelter, sanitation, education, and healthcare sectors. The sustained rate of new arrivals to the camp has already depleted all available land in the new settlement areas.” (5) The large population of refugees has always been a problem as it can be challenging, especially when diseases break out.

“Medical care is provided in the camps. However, with the population of refugees daily rising rapidly, the health care resources and water capacity is extremely limited.” It is fully depending on the humanitarian agencies such as the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, World Food Program, Doctors without Borders. Kakuma refugee camp maintains four free medical clinics, open Monday through Saturday, and a 90-bed, in-patient referral hospital with limited surgical capacity. The environment provides many challenges for the refugee camps.

With the refugee camp in a semi-arid desert environment, there has been high temperature, poisonous spider, snakes, outbreaks of malaria, cholera and other hardships. The rain season might flood the sanitation facilities. There is also a high chance of diarrhea, pneumonia, cholera and other disease breaking out (6). According to medical aid workers in Kakuma, cases of severe diarrhea are rapidly rising, and it has become the main cause of death among refugees, especially in children under five-years-old who are the most vulnerable. Malaria has also spread in the camp before, the most severe case was in 2005, the Kakuma refugee camp experienced a malaria outbreak because of the rainy season. In July, the number of patients coming to the clinic with malaria always dramatically increases. Even though there are many volunteers and doctors in the camp helping, medicine and medical equipments are limited (7).

Faces collapse on themselves and their thin arms hung by their sides. There were children in the feeding center waiting to be fed. “Seven days ago I lost my son to sickness,” Musa says. Musa’s younger child is now sick. “I am so tired and weak. I’m trying to breastfeed my daughter, but I just don’t have enough milk because I haven’t been eating” (8). The babies in the center are fed only a small amount of powdered milk solution. Approximately 58 percent of the reported deaths in the camp have been children under 5, and 25 per cent have been adults over the age of 50. Up to five children die because of the lack of food each day. Food and water has also been causing diseases.

A hand-drawn poster decorates the tent walls illustrating why it is not safe to drink the surface water in the flooded camp, the same water that many of the camp’s refugees defecate or urinate in. “A recent hepatitis E outbreak suggests the campaign is not enough” Says UNHRC. Lack of clean drinking water is one of the biggest problems facing the refugees. In the Kakuma camp, the lines at the water points is stretched."I bring my buckets to the water point every morning at 6. I have to wait until 1 in the afternoon for a chance to fill them, and then I have to go again in the evening for more water. I spend most of my day just trying to get water," said Mahsim Hasan Abdulla, a refugee and mother of six children. (9)

“ All groups in the camp also remain heavily dependent upon the general ration as their main source of calories as there are hardly any sources of food.” (10) Insufficient access to land and the weather means that, except for the minority who is able to farm within the camp boundaries, the majority of refugees cannot cultivate any food. The camp does not have sufficient food to provide to their population. Even if a refugee receives the recommended amount of calories per day (1500 calories per day), there is also an unusually large numbers of young people in the Kakuma refugee camp, especially males in the 8-20 age range. Amongst the 8-20 year olds there are 3,000 unaccompanied minors living under an NGO group care programme. “I am always hungry” says Harad, who is 10 years old. Many of these boys walked from Ethiopia through southern Sudan to Kakuma during 1991 and 1992. “This group now face a deficit in their food intake of at least 20% as their energy needs are a minimum of 2,200 kcals/day.” (11) The refugees’ total caloric intake is further reduced as the refugees tend to sell food rations for other goods such as clothing, cooking equipment and other goods. Moreover, it is not only the quantity of food that is insufficient. There is also a lack of food variety.

Education

“Haram Jukin has always wanted to go to school, but poverty and war have stood in her way. In mid-October 2011, the 10-year old started attending school in the crowded Kakuma refugee camp.” (12)

There is a great yearning among the children and youth for education. Many young refugees want to learn and study. The atmosphere in the classrooms is always happy, which is different to the atmosphere of the camp.

The young refugees sat in their classrooms, listening attentively to teacher. Whenever their teacher asks a question, almost everyone’s hands shoot up, yearning to answer the question, hoping to gain more knowledge.

Lots of children have began school in the Kakuma refugee camp. Organizations such as the Unicef, provided tents for classrooms, textbooks, chalk, exercise books and other educational material. The school follows the Sudanese curriculum and also teaches them english. Even though the classrooms are crowded with too many students, the young refugees are happy that they get to be educated.

Somora is 11 years, she came with her brothers and sisters however her parents did not come with them. Her typical day will begin at 4:00 AM when she wakes up, she starts the fire for tea and occasionally a small porridge for her siblings and other family members. She then wakes her younger brothers and sisters, washes and dresses them for school, feeds them, organizes their school materials and cleans up after them. Then goes to her own school.

Even though the class rooms are crowded and lack of equipment, education and learning has gave the youths and children of Kakuma a new hope.

The Refugees

Even though the rain was pouring, a few boys ran out of their hut. Their skinny legs looked fragile, their skin looked dry, there was mud all over their clothes, yet their smile was so bright.

The different refugees have different opinions and views of the camp. Some view it as their home and are grateful despite the many hardships. Kakuma’s residence are not allowed to leave the camp. They cannot go home or go anywhere else. Some view it as a ‘prison’. Others view it as a temporary shelter, hoping to go back to their villages one day.

Some refugees say that life in Kakuma is still a massive improvement over the conditions the refugees faced in their villages. “I am not sad about having to leave my village” says 10 year old Iklas Bashir. “I was only sad that I didn’t have time to gather my school books before we had to leave our home,” she says. Iklas dreams to be a teacher when she grows up. She has started to attend school in the camp so she can learn English. She is able to count to 25. “I’m happy here. I feel safe and when the bombing stops we will go home.” (13) For some refugees, the situation in the camp has been better than what they’ve seen in their villages. They feel that they have found safety.

Some refugees are yearning to go home. “Most of the people in camp you can see are trying to improve their lives,” says Valentino, who came to Kakuma when he was around 5 or 6. “But what can we do? We are refugees and we have no place to go.” The refugees are not allowed to leave the camp grounds. There are many in the camp who wish to return to their homes one day. Oshellem Deng, 14, another unaccompanied minor in Kakuma wished to be reunited with her parents. She does not know whether they are dead or alive nor does she know where they are.
There are also refugees who describe life in the refugee camp as “hell life”. Seeing their family and friends get sick or die, many do not have hope and are hoping something would change soon.
While there is plenty of challenges and problems in the camp, there is also plenty of life and energy to be found in Kakuma. The residences of Kakuma faces incredible hardships, and the refugees are grateful for the assistance, but they don’t see themselves as victims who deserves pity. We should support them as they help themselves recover, with dignity and respect. While the refugees wait for things to improve at home or at the camp, they continue to collect their monthly food and water rations and hope that their tent, or mud shack, will provide relief from the blistering sun, or survive the next bout of monsoonal rain. The UNHRC and NGOs continues to provide help and try to help the camp improve.

The storm has stopped. The little girl came outside to carry the pot of rain water that she collect. The sky turned to bright blue instead of the metal grey. Through the thinning clouds, a thin ray of sunlight shone. In that ray of light, there was a message. A hope for a new beginning.

footnote citations:

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"Kakuma News Reflector – A Refugee Free Press." Kakuma News Reflector A Refugee Free Press. N.p.,
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"ACT Alliance." Schools Nurture Children in South Sudanese Refugee Camps -. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2013.

"Refugees in South Sudan Find Hope amid the Despair." Thestar.com. N.p., n.d. Web.