Children have milk in Dadaab from Christmas sticker sales

This post serves as an urgent reminder to all readers that many of the residents of Dadaab refugee camps continue to suffer on the very cusp of survival.  Extreme environmental, political and economic shocks have pushed vast areas of the Horn of Africa to breaking point.  Somalia represents the epicentre of the Horn’s instability and refugees continue to flood across the border into the enormous, overcrowded camps in the semi-desert of Northeastern Kenya.  My distaste at the world’s response to this multi-faceted and chronic crisis may have been perceptible in my previous blogposts; it is growing increasingly difficult to moderate my tone and pander to people’s sensibilities.  Frankly, the ongoing emergency at Dadaab is beyond an embarrassment to the so-called ‘international community’.  It is a disgrace to the impotent, puppet institutions that have been charged with caring for the marginalized, and with establishing and maintaining acceptable human rights standards at the international level.  These less-than-subtle points are not the only glaring omissions from most recent mainstream media coverage of the crisis; very little emphasis is put on the fact that Dadaab refugee camps are the closest thing that half a million people have to ‘home’.

Most have no alternative place to live or seek a livelihood and though I have not been to the camps, I know enough about them to assert that if you had an alternative residence, only some pretty twisted logic would keep you at Dadaab.

When we talk about Dadaab, we are now talking about a vast complex, a ‘virtual’ city whose population has increased from 90,000 in 1991 when the camps were opened to approximately 500,000 today.  Let us assume that the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding at Dadaab can be considered a problem.  Working on that assumption, and looking at the population statistics, it is fair to say that the problem is growing, not going away. Evidently, not enough has been done to alleviate the symptoms or treat the causes of this chronic crisis.  [Let me acknowledge Kenya’s ongoing military intervention in Somalia which is supported by Western governments and IS designed to restore peace in Somalia and hopefully treat the root cause of the suffering of Somali refugees.]

On one level, I know I should believe that the humanitarian organizations and UN-agencies are doing the best they can with ‘limited resources’ and that political and institutional barriers can often restrict implementation strategies in tense, emergency situations like Dadaab refugee camps.  However, I also know that hundreds of millions of aid dollars flow into those camps and that a lot of refugees do not feel that they are benefitting proportionately.  And one can hardly blame them.  It is no secret that officials from overseas receive generous salaries and travel in brand new, state-of-the-art vehicles.  While I doubt that enough people will read this blog for it to rattle any cages, I also doubt that it is common knowledge that there are bars and nightclubs within the UN/NGO compound at Dadaab.  In fact, if you speak to people who have been inside the complex they will confirm that it is commonplace for international NGO-staff to get drunk and party to banging music until the small hours.  Presumably, none of the people close to the speakers will ever be in the camps at night (too dangerous!) and neither will most of the refugees hearing the booming bass from the camps ever have the privilege of rubbing shoulders with the foreign aid-workers inside the club.  It is nauseating that the imbalances that exist between different ‘catergories’ of people are rubbed so flagrantly in the faces of those holding the wrong end of the stick, where suffering is most abject and self-evident (and LET’S NOT EVEN GET INTO the cultural insensitivity and social abnormality if alcohol consumption in a Somali community) .  In every detail of their lives from their dwellings and their diet, to their security, educational and socio-economic status, international NGO-staff and Dadaab’s refugee population could not be more different.

I don’t know exactly what these people get paid because I have never been able to get my (well-qualified and insistent) foot in the door of any of the ‘big’ NGOs or UN agencies.  The truth is I am not sure I want to now.  I know that the rations provided for refugees are insufficient for survival, let alone for living a healthy, happy life.  Therefore it follows that refugees must pursue other livelihood strategies to survive.  Often such activities are risky and consume time that might be used otherwise (ideally for self-empowerment/improvement).  Especially at times when humanitarian activities are suspended due to ‘security risks’ it’s important to remember their plight and ask, ‘Can I do anything to help?’.  Despite the inadequate rations, the refugees survive somehow; their ingenuity and resourcefulness is remarkable; I probably wouldn’t survive a week.  If people have EVEN HEARD that aid has been suspended, I expect they often think, “O, it must be bad! if those brave people have had to pull out”.  They don’t necessarily think, “How the HELL do these refugees survive when their aid is reduced and the security situation deteriorates simultaneously?”.  The physical and mental stress of living under such conditions is unimaginable to almost everyone that’s bothered to read this far.  If you have read this far, please tolerate a slightly petty diatribe against consumerism and forgive my use of archetypes to illustrate a point.

It is a repugnant reflection on global society when we observe a status quo under which half of the world starves to death and the other races to consume the last of what’s left as the human race destroys the only place it has to live and itself.  As a graphic example, now, obesity and its numerous and multifarious co-morbidities represent the biggest emerging public health concern in most Western and ‘Westernized’ countries.  The excess of our diets and lifestyles, the sheer volume of filth people can drive into their pie-holes is now the primary threat to our health.  How bizarre that while some people are living in extreme comfort, killing themselves by eating too much, others are starving to death as they tramp for days without food or water across desert to seek refuge in a camp where conditions fail to meet minimum humanitarian standards because their homeland has been ravaged by a bloody and lawless civil war and the effects of extreme and unpredictably climatic variation.

Few would deny that the inequalities between groups of people are unacceptable but allow me to put the problem in perspective.  I am sure that many readers will have consumed alcohol over the Christmas and New Year period.  As a former UK drinker, I am well aware of the financial burden and self-pity/guilt that accompanies seasonal drinking.  I reckon that most young people reading this will have spent more than £40 on a single night out during the festive period…if you had a meal, you could probably even double that.  Would it surprise you to know that if that money, from only one night out, went directly to a family in Dadaab, they could cover their needs for a month?  To take this argument to the extreme, if you are in London, you have probably watched some clown in an expensive shirt, talking like he’s the most interesting thing on two legs and you just know he’s rammed £150-worth of coke up his self-important hooter.  Doesn’t it make you sick to see that when you know there are people starving to death just 8 hours away on a plane?  Even if I could convince a person to: firstly, abstain from his/her vice/luxury (even for one night/week/month), whether it’s food, booze or whatever else and then give the money to someone who needs it more than him/her then the surely the world would be a slightly better place.  Picture this: not only are the poor people benefitting from the cash injection, but the usually-thoughtless consumers are feeling an unfamiliar yet pleasant fuzzy feeling in their tummies because they’ve actually done something because it was the right thing to do, not just for self-gratification.  Forgive me if I am coming across as self-righteous, that’s not my intention.   I am frustrated and want other people to understand why, that’s all.  I don’t claim to be holier-than-thou, not in a million years.  I don’t think that the fatties, shop-a-holics, drunks or dope-fiends are necessarily bad people.  Indeed, I sympathise and empathise with the addicts.  They are not necessarily bad people, no, but they are most certainly misled.  We need to realize, as a global society that happiness is not hiding inside a new pair of shoes or a car; it doesn’t lie on the other side of that burger, beer, spliff or line.  Happiness comes from self-acceptance; accepting yourself is easier if you give careful thought to your actions, and your behaviour towards other people.  Think long and hard about this and decide if you think it’s the right thing to do, to help redress humanity’s imbalances, even if it’s just in a minor (affordable), personal and private way.

Wherever you lie on the spectrum, between “saintly altruist” and “insatiable, self-obsessed egoist”, let’s face it, there is probably more you can do as an individual to rebalance the wealth equation (if not, fair play to you, you’re doing well!).  In fact, all you have to do is make the conscious decision and you can do it – in as small or as big a way as you please, right now.  Donating to those less fortunate is a good start: Dadaab’s people are among the most marginalized, disempowered and neglected on the planet.  You can do something to empower these people to demand their right to a decent quality of life by supporting Voices of Africa’s grassroots humanitarian distributions right now and more long-term educational projects which emphasise the importance of using information and communication technologies effectively to improve quality of life and foster a spirit of social entrepreneurship.s

Voices of Africa is looking to expand and strengthen its trusted grassroots network of individuals inside the camps where emergency assistance is supplied directly to the refugees by providing cash.  Thanks to Kenya’s, effective cash transfer system, MPESA, funds can be directed to those in need without delay. This type of aid has the benefit that it is not hampered by bureaucracy or administration and it can continue, even when there is an NGO security ‘lockdown’ in the camps.  Fast cash can reach the refugees and be spent on exactly what is needed, when it is needed.  Your donation could benefit a refugee family in a matter of days.  Voices of Africa is currently facilitating the direct delivery of emergency nutritional and medical supplies via its trusted network.  Please help us to help some of the world’s most disadvantaged people and make yourself feel good into the bargain.

[This post represents the opinion of the author and is not a reflection of Voices of Africa's institutional stance or any official policy]