In a refugee camp in Kenya, leading by example

“I could barely comprehend, as I was just five years old,” says Ahmed, reflecting on his youth. Despite the hardship and disorientation, he kept alive his dream to join the medical profession, and to achieve it, he knew he had to go to school. 

 

“I went through both primary and secondary school in Hagadera,” he says, but his family could not afford medical school. Undeterred, Ahmed took courses at a branch of the University of Nairobi, and later earned a diploma in nutrition and dietetic management at the Kenya Institute of Social Work and Community Development.

 

Ahmed then joined GIZ, a German development agency that provides health care services in Hagadera, as a field registrar, admitting and discharging malnourished children and providing health and nutrition education to fellow refugees. When the International Rescue Committee (IRC) took over health operations in January 2009, he was promoted to the position of nutrition supervisor. When the IRC needed a refugee counterpart manager for the nutrition program, Ahmed was the obvious choice for the job.
 

Today Ahmed supervises staff at the stabilization center where severely malnourished children receive emergency treatment. He also oversees the pediatric ward in the IRC-run camp hospital and four satellite health posts that facilitate IRC nutrition programs, link patients’ families to support groups and counseling services, and refer complicated medical cases to the hospital. Perhaps most importantly, as one of the camp’s own, Ahmed helps newly arrived refugees connect with the IRC. “I act as the link between the organization and the community,” he says.

 

In part because of Ahmed’s contributions, the IRC’s nutrition program was recognized by peer agencies within the Dadaab complex in July 2011 (during the peak of the drought that ravaged the Horn of Africa). Recently, humanitarian operations across Dadaab have had to adjust to new security restrictions (in response to the abduction of two aid workers and an increase in homemade bomb incidents). Although Kenyan and international staff are now limited to working within the main camp hospital, the IRC continues to provide quality health care services throughout Hagadera thanks to the dedication of counterpart managers such as Ahmed and other camp residents on staff.

 

Working with the IRC has allowed Ahmed to further his education while addressing the needs of his community. He still holds on to his original dream of studying to be a doctor. “I am hell bent on achieving my goal, without a doubt,” Ahmed declares boldly. “I can see light at the end of the tunnel. I want to support refugees in Kenya, but if peace prevails in Somalia, I will go back home and serve my people, with specific emphasis on children affected by malnutrition. Otherwise, I hope to be resettled abroad where I can continue to attend to the world.”

 

 

Reporting by Liz Ongoro from Dadaab

 

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