Children of the Drought: A Newsround Special Newsround


Children of the Drought: A Newsround Special

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Across East Africa, millions of people are struggling to survive.

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Tens of thousands are on the move, leaving their home and belongings

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in search of food, water and shelter. This is the worst drought

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in the region for as long as anyone can remember. The only hope for

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many is to get a refugee camp by any means possible.

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I wanted to know what it feels like to leave your home and walk for

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days in the baking sun with little to eat or drink. I travelled to

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north-east Kenya to meet children who have left everything behind to

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reach the Dadaab Camp. From here, it is 60 miles to Somalia where the

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drought led to a famine. It is dusty. We spotted the carcasses of

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dead animals and I have been told that it hasn't rained properly

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around here for three years. This drought is having a devastating

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effect on this part of Africa. This is the Dadaab Camp. The

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biggest refugee camp in the world. Hundreds of thousands of people

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have come here because they have nowhere else to go. The first thing

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that struck me, there were children everywhere with more arriving all

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the time. Mohamed is 13, but he looks about eight. Like many Somali

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children his growth has been stunted because of a lack of food.

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How long has it taken Mohamed to get here today?

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18 days, so more than two weeks. Mohamed is hungry and exhausted.

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His family walked for days and days across the desert to get here. His

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mum and dad are on their way. The reason he had to leave Somalia is

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because of the drought. His family's animals had died and he is

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waiting to get some food. Almost everyone here has made the

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same journey across the desert. Loads of them with stories like

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Mohamed's. This is the first place where everyone arrives. More than

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1,000 come here every day. More than half are children and I have I

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have been listening to their stories this morning. Many are

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saying they are hungry. They have spent two weeks getting here and

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this is the first place they can get some food.

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I was struck by how calm the whole place seemed. People were quietly

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waiting their turn. Here the new arrivals get the bare essentials,

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they get mats and blankets and pots and pans and food which lasts them

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for two weeks. They get beans, sugar, oil and

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flour. They get this, a pack of emergency biscuits. This contains

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vitamins and minerals. Outside the reception centre, I

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biferpd I bumped into Mohamed again. Not everyone is as lucky as Mohamed.

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Many are really weak and sick so everyone gets a medical check-up.

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The children will get the vaccinations and immunisations.

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They check for malnutrition. So status of some children.

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For some children the drought means they have gone for months without

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proper meals. They are They are starving. If

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these children weren't being fed high energy foods, they would die.

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The main problem here is... doctors here told me they have seen

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a huge increase in the numbers of starving children, five times more

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than usual. They are having to put up special tents to fit them all in.

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I felt really anxious about coming to the hospital today and seeing

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the children who were severely malnourish. Seeing some of them in

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there, they looked thin and I found it really difficult to look at them

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for more than a couple of minutes. They are in such a sad situation

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here, but I spoke to some of the doctors and they are saying they

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are doing all they can to help them recover.

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The problem for all the new arrivals is at the -- that the camp

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is full. It was built for 90,000 people and right now there are four

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times that number, 380,000. So once people are registered and and got

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some food, they come out here to the desert outside the main camp.

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There is no water. No toilets. There is rubbish everywhere. Even

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though children here have got nothing, they are amazingly

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friendly. This is what happens the minute the

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camera comes out. Every wants to see what we are getting up to and

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when I try and talk to some of them, they get a bit shy.

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One of the kids kids who was up for telling me his story was Hussain.

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TRANSLATION: Where I was living, I have no food and I have to walk

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three kilometres to get water. But there is never enough. I don't go

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to school. During the day, it is really hot and windy and during the

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night night it is really cold. I get scared at night because I can

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hear hyenas all around. He showed me where he was living. I

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couldn't believe how flimsy his tent was. It was a world away from

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where I was based. I am staying at a secure compound

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which is a 20 minute drive from where the refugees are. Not far

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from here, we have got running water, somewhere to go to the

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toilet, but every night when I'm trying to get to sleep, I'm

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thinking about the children in the Dadaab Camp who have got nothing.

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When it is windy, it can be scary and it is hard for me to imagine

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what they are going through. Droughts aren't new in this part of

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Africa. They have been recorded for hundreds of years. Weather here can

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be inconsistent and it is not unusual for rains to fail.

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Sometimes for a couple of years in a row.

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There have been wars. That makes it harder for people when drought

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comes. Almost all the people arriving come from Somalia. Years

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of fighting here made it one of the most dangerous places on earth,

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lots of different groups are fighting for control of the country.

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What is meant to be the official Government, controls only a few

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streets in the capital. Gun battles happen daily. Hardly any children

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get to school and the rubbish in the street hasn't been cleared away

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for 20 years. Off the coast, pirates attack ships and take

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foreigners hostage. All this makes it really hard to build a life in

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Somalia, most people have very little so when the rains don't come

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and their crops fail and animals die, they have to leave their homes

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We're staying with the charity at a compound which is surrounded by

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security and barbed wire. Over here, we have the tents that were put up

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for the journalists, who have come out here to cover the story. Over

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here we have the kitchen and somewhere to eat. There is a TV

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room for the staff to relax in the evening and this is where we meet

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our driver every morning who takes us into the centre of the refugee

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camps. This camp was set-up 20 years ago,

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when thousands of refugees started pouring into Kenya to escape escape

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the fighting and Somalia. I had no idea had -- it had been here for so

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long. I was surprised to find out that it hasn't been made up of

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ragged tents. Parts of it are like a town. It is busy. There are

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people out and about buying things, shops, a place where you can buy

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mobile phone credit and a dentist. It is clear this is a community

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that has developed over the last 20 years.

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The kids here even follow premiership football. Chelsea,

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Arsenal, Man United, anyone for Spurs? Many of the children I met

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in this bit of the camp were born here, but one of the strange things

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about growing up in a refugee camp is that it is really difficult to

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leave. It is too dangerous to go back to Somalia and the Kenyan

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Government wants to keep all the refugees in one place. Everyone we

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met wanted to leave this camp and move to Europe or America, but only

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a tiny number ever get that chance.. We like. We like. Hi guys.

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Around half of the children in the camps go to school and this is one

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of the typical schools that we've come to today. There is about 2,000

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students here aged between five and 19 years old and they stick to the

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Kenyan national curriculum. They learn Swahili, maths and science

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and they have given us a fantastic reception this morning.

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There are between 100 and 500 children in each class. They have

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run out of classrooms here and some of the lessons have to be taught

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outside. The headmaster told me that this

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morning they had to accept 24 new kids who were escaping the drought

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and you are having to accept more kids every day? Yes, every day new

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arrivals. Every day. 60 a day. One of the children who had just

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arrived was Hussain who fled Somalia. It was his first day and

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the first time he ever been to school.

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TRANSLATION: My parents died before I left Somalia. I left because of

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the drought. I sleep in the open. I can't get enough food. Life is very

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hard here. But it is better than before. I asked Hussain what he

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wanted to be when he grew up. He told me he couldn't think that far

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ahead and at the moment all he wanted was to get a proper

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education. Hussain had an amazingly tough tough childhood, but many

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Somali children have it even worse. The United Nationss declared famine

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in parts of Somalia, that means that one in three children are

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severely malnourished, many of them are likely to get and it is hard to

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get help to them. Much of the country is controlled by an

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extremist group who have links to Al-Qaeda. They don't like western

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charities and are trying to stop food getting to the people who need

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it. In camps, charity and aid play ang important role, running things

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and trying to provide enough food, water, hospitals and schools.

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But I found out during my trip that refugees are helping each other too.

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Religious leaders here are giving out, food and clothes and it it is

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stuff that has been dominated by the refugees who live here that

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don't have much. They are giving it to some of the new arrivals who

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have nothing. Over the years, pictures of

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children caught up in wars and drought in Africa have become

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familiar sights on our TV screens. But nothing can can prepare you for

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the moment when you see a child who has lost his parents, or when you

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meet am family who has been forced to leave their homes and walk for

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days in the hope of finding food and water. I have been inspired by

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