By Melany Markham M
ahadu Biriye beams across her desk. Warm and friendly, she offers a back- ground in counseling, empathy and
understanding to women who find their way to the Lutheran-run “Safe Haven” at Haga- dera camp.
Hagadera is one of five refugee camps in Dadaab in northeastern Kenya. The Lutheran World Federation manages the camps for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), caring for more than 400,000 displaced people. In the last three years the refugee population has grown by 85 percent.
Famine facts What is famine? It is
of the adult • At least 20 percent popula-
a serious emergency only declared when an area has reached Level 5 of the U.N. Integrated Phase Classification sys- tem. At Level 5:
tion has a severe lack of access to food.
the childr• At least 30 percent of acute malnutrition.
adults or four of
every 10,000 children die of starvation. According to the
U.N., the Horn of Africa is experiencing “the most severe food secu- rity emergency in the world today.”
Based on reports from Lennart Hernander, Lutheran World Federation Department for
World Service representative in Kenya-Djibouti.
en suffer from 10,000• Each day, two of every
Across the Horn of Africa, more than 12 million people lack food due to wide- spread drought and famine. At the end of August, 450,000 people were dis- placed from 12 coun- tries, with the largest number (95 percent) from Somalia. Half of all those displaced are women.
Safe Haven was
started to help some of these women. Almost devoid of trees, seemingly desolate, Hagadera’s fenced compound holds about 20 rect- angular buildings with blue roofs. Biriye’s welcome and the happiness of the families who live here is evidence that the program is fulfilling its purpose. To the three families who currently live in the haven, it’s a wel- come sanctuary.
Living fr freeom violence
In Dadaab, Kenya, Lutherans help women rebuild their lives
The number of residents varies. Safe Haven has housed about 100
people at a time but can accommodate as many as 120—women and children fleeing desperate situations. “Mostly they encounter problems with their male relatives,” Biriye said. The intention is for women and their families to stay in the shelter
a maximum of three months. Sometimes the problems that force the women to seek out Safe Haven are resolved and they can resume their lives in the refugee community. Other women and their children have remained as long as three years. Much as with U.S. domestic violence shelters, client names are con-
fidential at Safe Haven for the protection of the women and children. Any of the humanitarian organizations working in Dadaab (including other implementing members of ACT Alliance, a global network of church bodies) can refer people to Safe Haven. One woman sought refuge at Safe Haven after a brutal rape—not to elude her attackers but to escape the stigma she was experiencing in the community as a result of the crime to which she’d been subjected. While she was in Safe Haven, her husband found the family a home in another part of Dadaab so she could move back there with the children. Often girls come to Safe Haven to escape early marriage. In tradi-
tional Somali culture, girls around the age of 15 are engaged to hus- bands who pay a dowry to the brides’ families. In some cases Somali men living overseas have come to the camps in Kenya to find young women to marry, Biriye said. The price or dowry paid to a family could be as much as $530, she added. To a family that has lost everything, such a sum is enough for them to marry their daugh- ters to people they don’t know. One 14-year-old came to get away from relatives who were pressur- ing her into an early marriage. She has been living at Safe Haven for
Markham is the communications officer for the Lutheran World Federation in Kenya/Djibouti. Lutheran World Information staff also contributed to this story. 36 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
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