Somali Refugees: A look inside Dadaab camp

International Rescue Committee (IRC) nurse Christine Simiyu treats a baby boy who has been rushed via ambulance to the hospital in Hagadera, Dadaab, after suffering convulsions. She’s taken blood tests and is now putting him on a quinine drip for suspected malaria. “The pediatrics ward is always very busy, especially as more and more refugees keep arriving,” says nurse Simiyu. “We are doing our best but the truth is that occasionally the number of patients is just too high – today we have 33 children and only 27 beds.” Photo: Joanne Offer/The IRC

Refugee men, women and children wait patiently to be registered at the United Nations’ reception center in Dagahaley – one of three sites in Dadaab. Dagahaley is the only site still registering arrivals - both Ifo and Hagadera are closed – and while the newcomers all get a food ration card, they won’t receive a plot of land as the camps are all completely full. The Kenyan government has promised land for a fourth site, but this has yet to materialize in practice. Photo: Joanne Offer/The IRC

A young boy is given a dose of Vitamin A as his family waits to be registered at the United Nations’ reception center. All children under 16 are also immunized by staff from GTZ, a German aid agency, for diphtheria, measles, polio and tetanus, as well as being checked for malnutrition. As conditions in Dadaab are so congested with families living on top of each other, preventative health measures are essential to preventing the spread of disease. Photo: Joanne Offer/The IRC

A young Somali girl is carried high on her father’s shoulders at an IRC health post in Hagadera, Dadaab. As part of a recent nationwide health campaign to reduce mortality in children under five, IRC health staff distributed bed nets to prevent malaria, offered specific health and nutrition advice, worked with schools to deworm children and conducted a mass screening to identify any cases of malnutrition. Photo: Mark Muinde/The IRC