by Rabbi Marla Feldman
Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism
(This is the second in a series of posts from Rabbi Feldman's recent trip to Kenya to deliver insecticide-treated bed nets purchased through the Reform Movement's Nothing But Nets campaign, which is underwritten by the U.N. Foundation.)

Dadaab, the largest refugee camp in the world, is a living hell. Situated on the equator, it is demonly hot, parched and barren. The soil ranges from sand to red manure-laden dirt that turns to snake-invested mud during the rainy season. Bits of scrub provide twigs to make the refugees' small huts and sustain the goats that some of the refugees have been able to bring with them or that they have purchased with funds from relatives who have made it to the promised land of other countries. Though built nearly 20 years ago to house 90,000, there are now a quarter of a million people who dwell in this hell-hole. They have little to do - other than a small market run by their Kenyan neighbors, there is no industry permitted by the host country lest others be encouraged to come. That does not stop the 5,000 additional refugees from coming each week. Most children attend some school, but with the need for multiple shifts there is a lot of free time for them with none of the typical youthful entertainment available - no balls, games, or television. Girls have a particularly difficult life as they are obligated for household chores and the care of younger siblings, while their mothers have one child after another as long as their bodies can endure. 

Angels in Hell

Only two groups of people end up in Dadaab: refugees who have no other place else on earth to go, and the angels who care for them. Spread over miles of the harshest equatorial desert, three camps (Ifo, Hagadera, Dagahaley) arise from the dirt, impossibly sustaining hundreds of thousands of desolate souls, mostly women and children (50% are children; 20% are under 5). The camps are run by UNHCR (UN High Commission for Refugees) - an agency that is sometimes reviled by host countries and criticized by world governments, but whose staff members are nothing less than heroes. UNHCR and other NGO staff members live either in the camps themselves, or in their own camp down the road. Their camp has amenities - a ping pong table, a tennis court (though who can play tennis in 100 degree heat is beyond me!), a bar that serves beer and bottled water, and a mess hall that serves the same food every day. (OK, I'm exaggerating - at lunch sometimes they serve spaghetti noodles and sometimes they serve rigatoni noodles for variety.) For a change of scenery, there is a small Ethiopian restaurant down the road opened by an entrepreneurial refugee, although staff members are not supposed to go there without escorts since a UNHCR staff member was kidnapped in Pakistan recently. It is considered one of the most difficult assignments, yet each commits to a minimum of 6 months in the Dadaab Hell, facing the same risks as the refugees: scorpians, snakes, malaria, cholera, heat, floods.

As staff members enter the camps, they are immediately surrounded by refugees, each with a different need, desperate for someone to hear them, hoping for someone who can help them, angry by their lot in life. We are shepherded through the camp by Maeve, originally from Ireland, who is responsible for the Hagadera camp housing nearly 100,000 people, though built for 30,000. Despite an outbreak of cholera and a growing water shortage (the Kenyan government won't allow them to bore new wells as they fear that will lead to an expansion of the camps), Maeve spends her day with us, showing us the community health posts and the single hospital (with just a single doctor - a young 20-something woman from elsewhere in Kenya). Hagadera is the only one of the three camps that has a surgical unit, and that day a volunteer doctor from an organization called Bethany Children Services is doing assessments for surgery to take place in the camp or for treatment elsewhere. Leading us through the "blocks" that make up the camp housing areas, Maeve is accosted by an elderly man waving his health card insisting that she help him immediately - she reminds him that he needs to go to the health post for care. Meeting in the Sudanese block, she is confronted by angry residents, who are fearful since someone was murdered a few days previously - she assures them there is an investigation and that she has been in regular communication with David, their elected block leader, who serves as our translator. Visiting the homes of the most at-risk residents to deliver nets, Maeve gently strokes the arm of an elderly blind woman, tenderly calling her the honorific 'Mama' as she explains to the gathering neighbors how proper hygiene can avoid cholera, which has become a growing concern (14 cases and 1 infant death to date).

If not for these angels - the UNHCR staff members, workers from NGO's like Care and Save the Children, undaunted doctors and the volunteers from within the camps themselves - life in the Dadaab Hell would be impossible. With grit, compassion and dedication, these ordinary heroes save lives each and every day.

Support Nothing But Nets and purchase an insecticide-treated bed net today.

View more pictures of this trip on flickr.

Print

Email

Comment

Comments

Post a comment