BLOG DAY 6 - Second visit to a refugee camp

We tried to finish our visit to the refugee camps on day 5, but didn’t manage to do that due to the distances between the camps and the long hours we stayed in each camp to investigate the refugees’ situation.

On the sixth day we decided to return to the first camp we had visited. We were informed that many refugees go to the town of Beled Hawo in an attempt to make some money, either through odd jobs or begging. We wanted to know more about how that was working out for them.

In the camp I met a young mother. She was about 20 years old, but had already given birth to three children, one of whom had died. Every day she went to town in search of a cleaning job. It wasn’t easy, because people in the cities didn’t have much to spend either. If she would find a job, she would earn 150 Kenyan shillings – the local currency - a day, which is the equivalent of 1.50 euros. It would be just enough to buy some water and food to keep her and her children alive.

I felt that my visit to the camps had given me a good idea of how the refugees were coping with the famine. I do hope that the Somalian government and the international community will work together in supporting these people.

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