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A lifeline in the desert

A lifeline in the desert

  • <p>More than 1,300 Somali refugees arrive daily at the already overcrowded Dadaab camp in Kenya. The IRC has helped to establish reception centers where newly arrived refugees receive food, health screenings and medical referrals. Here, people gather outside the fence at one of the reception centers waiting to be admitted.</p>
  • <p>Many refugees arrive in Dadaab with nothing, stripped of even their clothes by militant groups or bandits who roam the area near the Kenya-Somalia border.</p>
  • <p>The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates that about 40 percent of the Somali refugee children arriving at Dadaab are malnourished. Once they are identified as such, the children are rushed to the IRC&rsquo;s stabilization center, part of the IRC-run hospital in Hagadera, one of three sites that make up the sprawling Dadaab refugee camp. There they receive fortified food and medical care.</p>
  • <p>Minhaj Gedi Farahi, who is seven months old, arrived at the stabilization center weighing only six and a half pounds (three kilos) and on the brink of death. &ldquo;After a week&rsquo;s care he has gained 400 grams (almost a pound), which is a remarkable improvement,&rdquo; said the IRC&rsquo;s Dr. John Kigora. &ldquo;Against all odds, he will survive.&quot;</p>
  • <p>One-year-old Abdirahman Mohamed is in critical condition. Dr. Kigora and his colleagues constantly monitor the child, who is suffering from both severe malnutrition and pneumonia.</p>
  • <p>Halima, Abdirahman&#39;s mother, said the drought killed all her family&rsquo;s livestock&mdash;10 cows and two goats. &ldquo;We have nothing left,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;We have nothing to return to.&nbsp; I&rsquo;m scared about the future.&quot;</p>
  • <p>At the Hagadera stabilization center, acutely malnourished children, infants, pregnant women and new mothers receive food fortified with micronutrients.</p>
  • <p>Abdallah Ibrahim Jare and his family walked for 25 days across the desert from their village in southern Somalia before reaching safety in Dadaab. The drought killed their crops and animals, leaving them with no food for the journey. Abdallah&rsquo;s wife died of fatigue and starvation along the way.</p>
  • <p>When Abdallah&rsquo;s son, three-year-old Aden Abdile Ibrahim, arrived in Dadaab, he weighed only 11 pounds (five kilos). An average three-year old boy should weigh around 30 pounds (15 kilos). After a week of treatment in the IRC stabilization center Aden has gained two pounds and is on his way to recovery.</p>
  • <p>Outbreaks of disease are a significant risk in Dadaab, which hosts four times the population it was built for. In response, aid groups this week launched a mass vaccination campaign against polio and measles.</p>
  • <p>Every morning infants are weighed and measured in the stabilization center to chart their recovery. Bashir Halane, an IRC nutritionist, checks a baby who has gained weight over the last few days.</p>
  • <p>Hussein Abdullahi, an IRC nurse&rsquo;s assistant (left), and nutritionist Ismail Hussein Omar, measure a refugee girl at the stabilization center.</p>
  • <p>One-and-a-half year old Abdi Awow Abdullah is being discharged from the stabilization center only six days after he arrived in critical condition. &ldquo;He has come back to life,&rdquo; the IRC&rsquo;s Dr. John Kigora said.</p>
Launch Slideshow

Every day hungry, exhausted, and desperately ill Somali refugees and their children are brought to an IRC-run field hospital in the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya. The IRC’s Peter Biro reports on how the refugees are being nursed back to life and health.

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When three-year-old Somali refugee Aden Abdile Ibrahim arrived in Dadaab, he weighed only 11 pounds. After a week of treatment in the IRC stabilization center Aden has gained two pounds and is on his way to recovery.

Text and Photos by Peter Biro

The drought in the Horn and East Africa is the worst in 60 years, with more than 12 million people in Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Kenya in urgent need of food and assistance. The United Nations has declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia, with the rest of southern Somalia at growing risk.

In response, the International Rescue Committee is stepping up its aid effort across the region. IRC teams are also aiding tens of thousands of Somali refugees who are pouring into camps in Kenya and Ethiopia—many barely clinging to life. At IRC-run clinics and a field hospital in Dadaab, Kenya—the largest refugee camp in the world—the IRC is treating some 500 Somali refugees every day.

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