Life on the border – one year on

Amanda Koech, a Communications Officer for World Vision Somalia, describes the scene at a border town in the south-west of the country – and asks how the situation has changed one year after a food crisis was declared in East Africa. 

I’m in Kabasa camp in the dusty border town of Dollow in Somalia – home to more than 1,200 families, many too afraid to return to the insecurity of their former lives in the south.

Just a short distance from here the borders of Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia converge. All three countries have been severely affected by the food crisis which has gripped this region, and which gained vast media attention this time last year.

And this is just one of more than ten camps spread around Dollow district catering for nearly 80,000 displaced people. Many families fled the drought of 2011 from Southern Somalia as well as conflicts that have continued in most parts.

Picture of improvement

There’s no question that violence, disease and hunger is still a daily reality for communities in Somalia – an issue which we, and other aid agencies on the ground, are relentlessly working to address.

But there is progress. I first came to Dollow last summer and, compared to then, there is a marked improvement in the welfare of people. When I first came, there was hardly any shelter for families. They lived under flimsy pieces of cloth and were exposed to the elements. Children spent most of their days idling at the feeding centre together with their mothers.

World Vision and others have been working hard to change this. A feeding centre and other programmes have drastically reduced malnutrition. A walk in the camp reveals more healthy children compared to last year. Housing has also improved, where traditional huts and better tents now dot the camp.

Hand-to-mouth existence 

The plight of the families here is personal to me. Growing up in neighbouring Kenya our family, too, faced a drought. My parents were farmers and didn’t make much money, meaning we effectively lived hand-to-mouth.

As a four-year-old child, the next thing I knew was that all the crops were drying in the field and my parents could no longer feed us. We ended up with one meal a day and many of our neighbours were starving too.

I survived where many did not. And last year in Somalia, years after my own experience, I saw others in the same situation… women and children trekking for days for this precious commodity called food.

Afraid of the insecurity

Back in the Kabasa camp today, the World Vision mobile clinic visits ensures that families get treated for common ailments. We also provide clean drinking water at the camp, saving women and children trips to the crocodile-infested Juba River where several livestock have been reportedly eaten.

According to the World Vision Regional Manager at Dollow, Kebeh Jallah, many of the camp residents are afraid of going back to their homes in the south due to insecurity.

They say that as long as insecurity persists, they will not be able to produce food in their farms and rear livestock.