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Horn of Africa Food Crisis – Today at the Dadaab Refugee Camp
Posted by: Staci Dixon on July 8, 2011 at 10:35AM EST

By Alexandra Lopoukhine, Emergency Media Officer
July 6, 2011

The heat is strong and the wind is blowing. The shade provides relief. People are lined-up, orderly and patient. There is an overwhelming sense of calm. This is not exactly what I would have expected in the Dagahaley Registration Center, as today, 1,055 people wait for food and to be brought into the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) system.

Then, we spoke to a few of the women and they explained their long and challenging journey that brought them here, to Dadaab, the world's largest refugee camp. They told us of their days of walking, of the challenges they faced in the last few days, and last few hours before they reach here. The hunger they faced at home. The insecurity. One women explained she had heard on the radio in Somalia that here, in Dadaab, they were giving away free food. This was the information she needed to get her kids in order and start the move. People were calm, I realized, because they had arrived.

They arrived to be greeted by staff from UNHCR, World Food Programme, CARE, and so many other organizations here, ready and able to support them. Relief was offered in the tangible supplies water, food and order.Orderly lines, orderly registration points, orderly information given to people reeling from their recently history of chaos. This is today's relief.

Newly-arrived refugees from Somalia wait to be registered at Dagehaley camp, one of three camps that make up the Dadaab Refugee Camps in northeastern Kenya. Photo: 2011 Kate Holt/CARE

(1) Comments
Posted by: Erik Bjorklund on July 11, 2011 11:49AM EST
Thank you, I often think about the terribly situation since I was ther i may.
erik

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