KENYA / DADAAB CAMP

The world's most populated refugee camp, Dadaab, situated in northern Kenya, is being expanded to accommodate thousands more refugees. Efforts are also underway to make it a green camp to reduce the environmental impact. UNHCR

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:14
• Production Date: 17 June 2010
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION - WHO
• Subject Topical: REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS
• Geographic Subject: KENYA; SOMALIA
• MAMS Id: U100617c

Description

STORY: KENYA / DADAAB CAMP
TRT: 2.14
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / SOMALI / NATS

DATELINE: 26. 27, 28 MAY 2010, NORTHERN KENYA

Shotlist

27 MAY 27, DADAAB CAMP, KENYA

1. Various shots, refugees lined up waiting to be registered
2. Various shots, unhcr official with phone and another with registrations papers
3. Various shots, registration and fingerprinting of refugees in the centre

28 MAY, IFO CAMP, KENYA

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Richard Floyer Acland, head of sub office, UNHCR:
“The population has grown considerably since the camps were first set up in 1991. They were originally allocated for about ninety thousand people, we are now on two hundred and seventy five thousand people, so significant increase.”

26, 27 MAY, DADAAB CAMP, KENYA

5. Various shots, camp with huts

27 MAY 27, DADAAB CAMP, KENYA

6. Various shots, Cos in her hut
7. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Cos Abdullahi Farah, refugee:
“Before we were given firewood, now we have to buy firewood from those people who collect firewood with the donkey carts, so now it is very, very expensive for us.”

27 MAY 27, IFO CAMP, KENYA

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Richard Floyer Acland, head of sub office, UNHCR:
“The extension of Ifo camp, which we have just been given, will allow us to accommodate another 80,000 refugees. It will also give the opportunity to set up a model green camp give us the chance to lay it out properly,, in a way which will preserve the environment rather than degrading it.”

28 MAY, HAGADERA CAMP, KENYA

9. Various shots, men building hut
10. Wide shot, trees for planting
10. Various shots, making mud bricks

27 MAY 27, DADAAB CAMP, KENYA

6. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Cos Abdullahi Farah, refugee:
“Before we were given firewood, now we have to buy firewood from those people who collect firewood with the donkey carts, so now it is very, very expensive for us.”

28 MAY, HAGADERA CAMP, KENYA

7. Various shots, stove class for women

27 MAY 27, IFO CAMP, KENYA

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Richard Floyer Acland, head of sub office, UNHCR:
“We have got a density of 11,500 people per square kilometre in those camps, which by any city standards is fairly dense”
8. Various shots, refugees waiting to be registered

Storyline

Each month more and more refugees cross into Kenya, fleeing the conflict in Somalia. They come here to the three camps of Dadaab.

Their numbers have grown beyond all expectations.

SOUNDBITE (English) Richard Floyer Acland, head of sub office, UNHCR:
“The population has grown considerably since the camps were first set up in 1991. They were originally allocated for about ninety thousand people, we are now on two hundred and seventy five thousand people, so significant increase.”

Only a third of the new arrivals can be allocated land to erect a shelter, the rest have to stay with friends and family.

Cos Abdullahi Farah, age 29 has lived in Daadab for over twenty years. The overcrowding has affected her too.

SOUNDBITE (Somali) Cos Abdullahi Farah, refugee:
“Before we were given firewood, now we have to buy firewood from those people who collect firewood with the donkey carts, so now it is very, very expensive for us.”

To accommodate the new arrivals, recently the Kenyan government agreed to expand Ifo camp.

SOUNDBITE (English) Richard Floyer Acland, head of sub office, UNHCR:
“The extension of Ifo camp, which we have just been given, will allow us to accommodate another eighty thousand refugees. It will also give the opportunity to set up a model green camp give us the chance to lay it out properly, in a way which will preserve the environment rather than degrading it.”

All camps have an impact on the environment, but the size of population here brings added urgency to the issue.

Traditionally the refugees use wood to construct their houses. Here efforts are being made to use dried mud bricks instead, to reduce the amount of wood harvested from the forests.

But replacing firewood for cooking is more difficult, as Cos explains.

SOUNDBITE (Somali) Cos Abdullahi Farah, refugee:
“Before we were given firewood, now we have to buy firewood from those people who collect firewood with the donkey carts, so now it is very, very expensive for us.”

Finding efficiencies is important. Cos is working for a local NGO building fuel efficient stoves, which use less firewood that traditional ones.

Women are taught the benefits of the stoves and how to use them.

Every conservation measure counts when dealing with such a large population.

SOUNDBITE (English) Richard Floyer Acland, head of sub office, UNHCR:
“We have got a density of eleven thousand five hundred people per square kilometre in those camps, which by any city standards is fairly dense.”

With hundred new refugees arriving each week, this new camp will soon be full too.

UNHCR, along with other UN agencies have increased assistance to the camps and the local community to try to improve the living conditions of the refugees but the challenges are ongoing.