"Creating a way forward for refugees"

Welthungerhilfe starts distribution of hygiene kits in Dadaab

Refugees from Somalia in Dadaab, Kenya. (16.08.2011). Today Welthungerhilfe has started distributing an initial batch of 6,000 hygiene kits for new arrivals in the Dadaab refugee camp. These contain water cans, wash basins, buckets and soap. The aid is being provided jointly with the Italian organisation, Cesvi, one of Welthungerhilfe's partners in Alliance2015, using funds which have been donated.

Approximately 1,500 additional refugees are arriving each day. The camp management, headed up by the UNHCR, is preparing for more than another 100,000 refugees. Welthungerhilfe will also provide them with hygiene kits.

Welthungerhilfe is warning that Dadaab must not become the "end of the line". Although refugee camps were intended only to be an emergency solution for a transitional period,  "Unfortunately however they increasingly often turn into permanent emergencies“, says Wolfgang Jamann, Welthungerhilfe's Secretary General. "The people in the camps need to see a way forward, they're not simply a 'logistics problem‘."

Jaman says that a twin-track approach is needed for this to happen. "The governments of Kenya and Ethiopia must make it possible for the refugees to provide for themselves. This includes both access to land and the right to work. At the same time, the international community must increase efforts to find a political solution for Somalia in order to make it possible for the refugees to return. The current weakness of the Al-Shabaab militias, and their obvious divisions, has opened a window of opportunity in this regard."

If required, we can arrange an interview for you with Jürgen Mika, a member of Welthungerhilfe’s emergency response team in Dadaab.