Employment, for many RCWs, freed them from the boredom of refugee life and put them in good stead to participate in improving lives in the camps. Given high levels of unemployment and difficulties in finding jobs in the camps, RCWs considered themselves privileged to be receiving compensation for their work. Though their earnings were generally viewed as paltry, RCWs agreed that it was better than nothing in a context of pervasive joblessness and near-exclusive reliance on humanitarian agencies for upkeep and livelihood.
Many of respondents noted that the stipends were a major motivation in their work. Male and female RCWs spoke of the empowering effect of their work. Overall, RCWs believed that their work contributed to the wider goals of social development, progress, security and health in the camps. Due to their work, they were known and respected in the community. This contrasted with the plight of other unemployed refugees who were often idle, did not earn any income, contributed little in terms of services to the community and sometimes relied on khat to deal with the tedium of camp life.
Female RCWs were particularly pleased with the opportunity to work. Some of them had sisters, mothers and relatives who had suffered or suffer from GBV. Their work offered them the opportunity to prevent future abuse, violence and oppression of women. Many of them felt empowered by working, teaching fellow refugees, helping others and earning their own incomes. I am helping my girls, my daughters, my sisters, and mothers.
They professional staff reportedly valued the role of RCWs in supporting survivors to access services and care, and following them up to ensure they received the full cycle of care. They reported that their cultural similarity with survivors was critical in linking and retaining survivors in care.
Without their support, very few people would seek GBV services in the camp. They are the ones who go into the community and houses to convince and offer survivors the confidence to seek services. Professional GBV service providers in the camps were often non-Somalis, did not speak Somali, could not enter the houses of the refugees in the camp, go into the community to teach about GBV and mobilize survivors, and could not conduct follow-up sessions with survivors who had initiated care.
Working closely with other service providers in the camp also empowered RCWs to navigate the care system. They could more easily seek and obtain specialized and quality care, counselling and support for their own health, social and emotional issues. Evidence that RCWs enjoyed their duties notwithstanding, they faced several work-related challenges.
Opposition by community members topped the list of reported challenges among participating RCWs. Narratives indicated that RCWs were often disparaged by refugees who believed they taught values that were un-Islamic and against the Somali culture. One RCW noted:. Yes, there is a lot of resistance especially regarding FGM which they say is a common practice in the culture … they feel that we are going against the culture, and others say the religion allows FGM and wife-beating.
Many parents like to marry off their children very early … and they do not like us to speak against it. In one trenchant acknowledgement of this confrontation and resistance by the community, one respondent noted:. They mock us in the community, saying that our work is not halal [religiously sanctioned or approved]. At some point, I had to go to a Sheikh religious authority for advice and he assured me that my work and income are very genuine and halal.
Opposition towards RCWs by community members was sometimes violent. The community will sometimes attack you, for example … there was a certain campaign that we carried out about FGM … and some people stoned us.
I was beaten … my teeth were broken as you can see … you cannot mention FGM and other things. They say it is our culture. Aggressors reportedly justified assaults on RCW by claiming they support foreign and un-Islamic values, promote gender equality and encourage women to disobey, challenge or leave their husbands. RCWs frequently received threats from persons in the camps.
One male respondent noted:. I have experienced threats myself which I have reported to the police. I was threatened through the phone. I was even told that my head would be chopped off. But this did not stop me from doing my work. I want my community to be free from violence. Insecurity was another commonly reported challenge among RCWs.
The camps were noted to be increasingly unsafe due to the activities of religious radicals, terrorists and Islamists. Inter-clan violence in the camps also often involved deadly violence and vendettas. Further, due to inter-clan rivalry and suspicion, some survivors only sought services from RCWs of their own clans. There are many challenges. One of them is the clan system. This hinders me from serving my community.
People from other clans are reluctant to bring a case to me because they say I will be unfair to them. For others, it is the pride for their clan, so they are choosy and search for someone else from their clan to solve the case.
Other critical challenges reported by the RCWs were extended work hours, scorching weather, poor pay, tensions between GBV agency staff and RCWs, and poor career prospects.
There were also widespread concerns regarding job and career security and a desire for higher-level training in GBV services, particularly in counselling and case management. Another key challenge we face as men is that when we go to the community to meet survivors, say of domestic violence, you know, she can be freer talking to a fellow woman.
We are not well equipped to deal with female survivors. There were also complaints regarding the lack of access to critical work resources, including phones, airtime, uniforms, and bicycles and motorbikes to enable to them move rapidly within the camp, effectively conduct follow-up meetings and promptly respond to the needs of people who need GBV services.
RCWs have burst upon the humanitarian scene as an important human resource for addressing GBV services provider shortages, effectively reaching the most vulnerable groups of underserved refugees and bridging the gap between mainstream GBV service providers and refugee communities. As with other lay health workers, realizing this potential calls, inter alia, for critical insights into how they constitute their work as well as the challenges they face performing it.
While RCWs will not replace professional GBV care and services providers, there is evidence from the current study that they are emerging as frontline workers who understand their community and are trusted by fellow refugees.
The positive role of lay health workers in improving outcomes for community members is amply documented and increasingly recognized Perry et al. Recent research has underscored the importance of a motivated and knowledgeable lay community health work force that understands the importance of the issues they are addressing in their community.
In Kenya, a community-based family-planning project involving the use of CHWs who themselves were users of family-planning services, including vasectomy, helped promote the rapid acceptance of modern family-planning services at the community level Null et al. On the other hand, lay CHWs sometimes also hold and spread beliefs that contradict scientific ideas of the very health issues they are employed to help communities prevent or deal with.
This situation often arises from the complexities in the social situations within which health workers operate. This is why we have a solid safeguarding structure, which has been further strengthened in the last two years, and which we continuously seek to improve. Between and January , nearly 80, refugees returned from Dadaab to Somalia. Another mother says refugees even hand over money on the airstrip, right before boarding Somalia-bound planes.
A middleman will pretend to escort them, lifting their luggage and taking the cash. Meanwhile, the World Food Programme has drastically cut rations in Dadaab in recent years, citing insufficient funding. As they grow increasingly desperate, many refugees are entering into debt to feed their families. But many refugees feel their days in Kenya are numbered. Dadaab in Numbers. LWF assists 35, beneficiaries directly and the entire camp indirectly through Peace and Protection teams.
The budget for LWF assistance in Dadaab was about 3. Dadaab refugee camp was established in and LWF started working here in Latest Updates. ECHO press release. Two candidates for next LWF general secretary. View All Updates. Dadaab Aid Agencies Camp. The long-term refugee population could be seen as a developmental intervention, with the camps in need of updated and more permanent infrastructure, including water systems and additional schools, hospitals and police posts.
The second, emergency-based operation focuses on providing basic resources and services for new arrivals. North-east Kenya has always been very insecure, with special Kenyan government permission needed before any travel is allowed by anyone to Dadaab.
The presence of armed bandits and Islamist militias such as Al-Shabaab, as well as periodic outbreaks of clan feuding, means that the threat of violence against humanitarian workers is very real. The UN mission in Dadaab operates under UN phase three security restrictions stipulating travel by convoy and with an armed police escort, no free movement of staff without armed guards in the camps and a curfew for humanitarian workers, who have to be in a secure compound from 6 pm to 6 am.
In the past few months the security situation has deteriorated further. In response to the deterioration in security, the Kenyan military launched Operation Linda Nchi Operation Protect the Nation , moving its troops into Somalia on 16 October.
The Kenyans have seized a number of towns held by Al-Shabaab militants some km inside Somalia, and have said that they will advance as far as Kismayo. Al-Shabaab retaliated with grenade attacks in Nairobi on 26 October, which injured 30 people, and bomb attacks on the police and humanitarian convoys in Dadaab. One police officer was killed and three others were seriously injured in a bomb attack while escorting UN officials in Ifo camp in December, and a landmine blast in Hagadera killed another police officer and seriously injured two more.
The withdrawal of many humanitarian workers from the camps has had a negative impact on the security and protection of refugees. The Kenyan authorities have imposed a curfew in the camps and have deployed more police, with reports of mass arrests and beatings of refugees during police sweeps for Al-Shabaab fighters. The ability of Al-Shabaab to operate within the camps and in surrounding areas such as Garissa seems to confirm the fears of many Kenyans, who believe that Dadaab is being used as a base for militants.
0コメント