Any time that a child spends in a refuge camp, isn't ideal, and is usually ripe for children's rights violations. However many children in refugee camps around the world, know no other life outside the camps, and Somalian children in Kenya are no exception. The question is, when and how can they leave life in the camps behind? The sad truth is no one knows, and leaving is not an option that looks to resolve it's self in the near future.
Unemployment in the camps is continuing to increase, as jobs are far and few in between. While many children have been unable to continue their education, as an estimated 2,000 children have been able to pass the secondary school entrance exams, others seem to have little advantage with an education. Education in the camps seems to have little value, regardless if a child moves on to secondary education or vocational training, the high unemployment leaves little room for hope at employment opportunities. Regardless of high levels of unemployment, education still has an incredible value in the camps to most parents. Therefore while free education heavily outweighs the unknown instability that awaits many back in Somalia, others question the point of an education that they have no outlet to use.
"I"ve stayed in the camp for 11 years and now I am about to finish grade four in secondary school. I think that after that I will just go somewhere else. Perhaps I might go back to Somalia, my country, without even waiting for repatriation. There is not peace there, but at least there is a life. If you manage not to be killed or robbed, then you can have a normal life there," said 17-year-old refugee, Abdi. (Which way out of the camps for Somalia's young refugees?)
Photo: Department of State
Children's organizations in the camps have placed considerable effort and resources into eduction on other children's rights issues, especially Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)/Female Circumcision. The efforts to end FGM in the camps have been a great success, as has disease preventions, such as promoting the use of treated mosquito nets to prevent malaria.
Returning to Somalia is not a viable option for adults or youth alike, as the country is still embattled with the conflict between the country's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC). Thus the indefinite nature of life in the camps has many worrying that the efforts in the camp are not enough. Concern that the ngo's and governments are not looking at resources and services that are enabling the refugees for the long run, nor the return home, when ever that may be.
"What the UNHCR has been doing is to find short-term solutions for a very long time. We need a real solution, not another emergency one," said Mohammed, 24. (Which way out of the camps for Somalia's young refugees?)
Other concerns in the camp, are the over all health conditions of children, and with chronic malnutrition of children in the camps now above the emergency level, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP). The WFP is now launching an appeal in conjunction with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).
"The malnutrition crisis that we are witnessing in the refugee camps in Kenya is the cumulative effect of years of recurrent budgetary shortfalls," said UNHCR acting representative Eddie Gedalof. "Year after year we are unable to fully meet refugees' needs for firewood, soap and other essential commodities. We must get to the core of the issue if we are to eradicate malnutrition in the camps."(UN agencies seek funds to help hungry refugee children in Kenya).
The instable situation in Somalia, and the uncertainty of returning home, has placed many youths at risk for being recruited to join the Islamic Courts' Militia. Others are at high risk to return home only to find themselves caught up in the instable environment, and discover only poverty, unemployment and violence awaits them. Unfortunately the questions that weighs heavy on the minds of all Somalian refugees, ‘When can we go home?’, remains unanswered.
