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As the devastating food crisis in East Africa worsens, disaster relief charity RedR is already on the ground to help train local aid workers in essential humanitarian skills, thanks to a new training programme based in Nairobi. And, with the long-term support of patrons like ACE, RedR will be able to do even more to equip aid workers with the technical knowledge they need to respond to emergencies in the months and years to come, writes RedR chief executive Martin McCann
Since the food catastrophe in Africa’s eastern Horn first hit the headlines in July, the situation on the ground has spiralled into one of the most pressing humanitarian crises seen in the region for many years. More than 13 million people are now at risk of malnourishment. Famine conditions have been reached in six regions of Somalia. Each day thousands continue to leave their homelands in search of help.
Crossing the border into Kenya, many Somali refugees end up at what is now the world’s largest refugee camp, Dadaab. Located about 100 kilometres from the Kenya-Somalia border, life for Dadaab’s 370,000 residents is one of long queues, countless tents, makeshift toilets and palpable despair.
“We have a lot of new arrivals – about 500 families each day”, says Peter Murithi, a Kenyan aid worker with the National Council of Churches in Kenya (NCCK). “The state they come in from that end [Somalia] is really horrible. They are so desperate, you even shed a tear.”
Walking for days
Many refugees walk for days and nights to reach the relative safety of the UNHCR camp – though often they have no idea what to expect when they arrive.
“People have to adapt to live like this,” Peter says. Despite the best efforts of aid workers like Peter – and scores of agencies working to support each and every new arrival – ‘adapting’ still means living in crowded conditions with limited access to basic commodities like water and sanitation.
As a trained water and sanitation officer, Peter knows all about the challenges of meeting the needs of 370,000 in a camp designed for 90,000. “Sanitation is the key issue we are facing,” says Peter. “As a human being, you need a toilet – and you need to drink.”
In response, Peter and his colleagues have been working tirelessly to help improve the situation on the ground. As well as trucking in tens of thousands of litres of water to fill temporary plastic tanks, Peter is tackling the issue of communal toilets.
“At the moment, there is one latrine for every five households,” Peter says. “We need to ensure more people have access to more toilets.”
Right people, right skills
Thankfully, Peter knows exactly what he is doing. Last year, he was a participant on a week-long RedR training course in Nairobi where he learnt the latest technical water and sanitation techniques to build on the years of practical experience he already had.
“We did so many things that week”, Peter says. “Everything from the latest methods for pumping water from the ground, to excreta disposal, to disposal of dead bodies, to containing water-related diseases like cholera. A lot of what we were trained on we are now using.”
Peter knows his new skills are making a difference to aid delivery on the ground. “Now when I say I am going to do a ‘needs assessment’ (to find out exactly what people in the Dadaab refugee camp need) I go back to what I learnt. Training on the ground enhances quality and performance – we were just implementing before, but now we’re applying. At the end of the day, I know I’m making an impact.”
RedR’s new humanitarian training programme in Nairobi, East Africa, has already begun to train aid workers like Peter in essential humanitarian skills. The training will mean hundreds more aid workers have the water and sanitation techniques, shelter knowledge, security know-how and project management skills to ensure aid delivery is more effective – and more lives can be saved in Dadaab camp and further a field.
If you would like to find out more about the positive impact your company can have on improving humanitarian efforts globally, please contact Amirtha Winslow (amirtha.winslow@redr.org.uk; 020 7840 6000).
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