Raised $3200
A refugee is a person seeking asylum in a foreign country in order to escape persecution, war, terrorism, extreme poverty, famines, or natural disaster.
So far this year, over 25,000 Somalis have fled conflict in their troubled homeland and arrived in Kenya for safe haven. Two to three hundred more refugees arrive on a daily basis. They are running for their lives taking with them only what they can carry. Women often travel alone with their children leaving behind their husbands (if still alive) to protect property or to fight.
Once crossing the border most of these refugees are restricted to living in refugee camps. Refugee camps are generally set up in an impromptu fashion and designed to meet basic human needs for a short time. When civil war or other problems prevent the return of refugees to their homeland a humanitarian crisis can result.
More than five million people have lived in refugee camps for more than 5 years.
Refugees are required to remain within the camps and are therefore totally dependent on international assistance. Typically the assistance they receive is inadequate. In one study of nine Sudanese refugee camps, the acute malnutrition of children under five varied between 20 and 70 percent. In 1994 some 50,000 Rwandan refugees died from cholera and dehydration in only a two week period in overcrowded African camps.
Not only is food lacking but also any form of government, opportunities for self-improvement, and ironically – safety. Rape, murder and armed robbery can be daily occurrences. Refugees become powerless in their own lives and end up in a state of idleness and despair.