By Ajang Ajang Ajang
Kakuma Camp, Kenya

November 10, 2006 - The United Nations High Commission for refugees (UNHCR) has been unsuccessful at the repatriation of refugees back to their homeland.  Early this year, a number of refugees had registered for voluntary repatriation however despite this many have not been attended to and transported back to their homes.According to the current head of the UNHCR sub-office in Kakuma, the repatriation will not take place in the near future because the UNHCR has not yet received funds from the donors.

However, the camp chairperson held several meetings with zonal leaders as well as UNHCR officials since the beginning of the year in order to address the issue, but this has been to no avail. The suffering refugees in the semi-arid area of kakuma, with weather characterize by non-stop dust and the temperatures of 38-40 degree celsius has been ignored and continues to devastate many in the camp. Many claim that the UNHCR is becoming more of an obstacle in their lives rather than the solution. “We are denied our basic needs!” another girl exclaimed. “That is why we wanted to go back home.”

Since the coming of the refugees in 1992, UNHCR has been feeding them on a lentil popularly known as “addas” in Arabic. This is the same type of food that is believed to have been the cause of the stunted growth in children.

The Sudanese children who should be inheriting their parent genetic characteristics e.g. height, weight etc have not due to the poor feeding conditions which have retarded their development. Moreover, due to the budget cut the main hospital in the camp, which has been caring and serving many sick and injured refugees and the members of the local host community, has been hit by lack of personnel, insufficient medical supplies and medical equipment. There have been cases of sick people being discharged from the hospital without receiving proper medical treatment. Education in the camp, which was one of the reasons that motivated many of the refugees to stay in the camp has been interrupted.

The UNHCR had been able to provide education to the camp dwellers by employing refugee teachers however many of the teachers have opted to pursue teaching careers in South Sudan without the knowledge of UNHCR.

This is mainly because the Government of South Sudan (GOSS) has been providing better chances for the teachers. Without a sufficient number of teachers, learning has been almost nonexistent and generally, life in the camp has been intolerable.