Day 11: Today was a pretty uneventful day. The highlight of the day was provided when we met 3 CARE employees on their way to the Dadab refugees’ camp. The Dadab camp has been operational for 14 years it started when Somalia was in turmoil. The camp holds approximately 130000 refugees and is source of a lot of tension in the regions because the refugees receive more attention than the North Eastern province inhabitants. CARE has been operating the camp all these years; the main donors to the camp are the US and the UNHCR. The camp employees 2000 people there are 17 schools and all the necessary facilities. This is a big contrast to the living conditions in the region. Some of the educated teenagers find scholarships in the US and Canada but the majority stay in the camp with no real future prospect; some of these educated young men join the paramilitary in Somalia.
So today I have learnt another hard fact about Africa, the picture is getting grimmer and grimmer!