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Across East Africa, millions of people are struggling to survive. | :00:14. | :00:18. | |
Tens of thousands are on the move, leaving their home and belongings | :00:18. | :00:21. | |
in search of food, water and shelter. This is the worst drought | :00:21. | :00:24. | |
in the region for as long as anyone can remember. The only hope for | :00:24. | :00:30. | |
many is to get a refugee camp by any means possible. | :00:30. | :00:34. | |
I wanted to know what it feels like to leave your home and walk for | :00:34. | :00:38. | |
days in the baking sun with little to eat or drink. I travelled to | :00:38. | :00:43. | |
north-east Kenya to meet children who have left everything behind to | :00:43. | :00:48. | |
reach the Dadaab Camp. From here, it is 60 miles to Somalia where the | :00:48. | :00:58. | |
:00:58. | :01:00. | ||
drought led to a famine. It is dusty. We spotted the carcasses of | :01:00. | :01:03. | |
dead animals and I have been told that it hasn't rained properly | :01:03. | :01:07. | |
around here for three years. This drought is having a devastating | :01:07. | :01:17. | |
:01:17. | :01:22. | ||
effect on this part of Africa. This is the Dadaab Camp. The | :01:22. | :01:25. | |
biggest refugee camp in the world. Hundreds of thousands of people | :01:25. | :01:28. | |
have come here because they have nowhere else to go. The first thing | :01:28. | :01:33. | |
that struck me, there were children everywhere with more arriving all | :01:33. | :01:38. | |
the time. Mohamed is 13, but he looks about eight. Like many Somali | :01:39. | :01:42. | |
children his growth has been stunted because of a lack of food. | :01:42. | :01:49. | |
How long has it taken Mohamed to get here today? | :01:49. | :01:54. | |
18 days, so more than two weeks. Mohamed is hungry and exhausted. | :01:54. | :02:00. | |
His family walked for days and days across the desert to get here. His | :02:00. | :02:04. | |
mum and dad are on their way. The reason he had to leave Somalia is | :02:04. | :02:10. | |
because of the drought. His family's animals had died and he is | :02:10. | :02:15. | |
waiting to get some food. Almost everyone here has made the | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
same journey across the desert. Loads of them with stories like | :02:19. | :02:23. | |
Mohamed's. This is the first place where everyone arrives. More than | :02:23. | :02:27. | |
1,000 come here every day. More than half are children and I have I | :02:27. | :02:29. | |
have been listening to their stories this morning. Many are | :02:29. | :02:32. | |
saying they are hungry. They have spent two weeks getting here and | :02:32. | :02:36. | |
this is the first place they can get some food. | :02:36. | :02:41. | |
I was struck by how calm the whole place seemed. People were quietly | :02:41. | :02:48. | |
waiting their turn. Here the new arrivals get the bare essentials, | :02:48. | :02:54. | |
they get mats and blankets and pots and pans and food which lasts them | :02:54. | :03:00. | |
for two weeks. They get beans, sugar, oil and | :03:00. | :03:05. | |
flour. They get this, a pack of emergency biscuits. This contains | :03:05. | :03:10. | |
vitamins and minerals. Outside the reception centre, I | :03:10. | :03:14. | |
biferpd I bumped into Mohamed again. Not everyone is as lucky as Mohamed. | :03:14. | :03:20. | |
Many are really weak and sick so everyone gets a medical check-up. | :03:20. | :03:27. | |
The children will get the vaccinations and immunisations. | :03:27. | :03:37. | |
They check for malnutrition. So status of some children. | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
For some children the drought means they have gone for months without | :03:40. | :03:46. | |
proper meals. They are They are starving. If | :03:46. | :03:53. | |
these children weren't being fed high energy foods, they would die. | :03:53. | :03:57. | |
The main problem here is... doctors here told me they have seen | :03:57. | :04:00. | |
a huge increase in the numbers of starving children, five times more | :04:00. | :04:06. | |
than usual. They are having to put up special tents to fit them all in. | :04:06. | :04:09. | |
I felt really anxious about coming to the hospital today and seeing | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
the children who were severely malnourish. Seeing some of them in | :04:13. | :04:16. | |
there, they looked thin and I found it really difficult to look at them | :04:16. | :04:19. | |
for more than a couple of minutes. They are in such a sad situation | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
here, but I spoke to some of the doctors and they are saying they | :04:23. | :04:26. | |
are doing all they can to help them recover. | :04:26. | :04:30. | |
The problem for all the new arrivals is at the -- that the camp | :04:30. | :04:35. | |
is full. It was built for 90,000 people and right now there are four | :04:35. | :04:39. | |
times that number, 380,000. So once people are registered and and got | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
some food, they come out here to the desert outside the main camp. | :04:43. | :04:49. | |
There is no water. No toilets. There is rubbish everywhere. Even | :04:49. | :04:52. | |
though children here have got nothing, they are amazingly | :04:53. | :04:59. | |
friendly. This is what happens the minute the | :04:59. | :05:02. | |
camera comes out. Every wants to see what we are getting up to and | :05:02. | :05:10. | |
when I try and talk to some of them, they get a bit shy. | :05:10. | :05:17. | |
One of the kids kids who was up for telling me his story was Hussain. | :05:17. | :05:24. | |
TRANSLATION: Where I was living, I have no food and I have to walk | :05:24. | :05:26. | |
three kilometres to get water. But there is never enough. I don't go | :05:27. | :05:29. | |
to school. During the day, it is really hot and windy and during the | :05:29. | :05:33. | |
night night it is really cold. I get scared at night because I can | :05:33. | :05:37. | |
hear hyenas all around. He showed me where he was living. I | :05:37. | :05:43. | |
couldn't believe how flimsy his tent was. It was a world away from | :05:43. | :05:47. | |
where I was based. I am staying at a secure compound | :05:47. | :05:51. | |
which is a 20 minute drive from where the refugees are. Not far | :05:51. | :05:54. | |
from here, we have got running water, somewhere to go to the | :05:54. | :05:58. | |
toilet, but every night when I'm trying to get to sleep, I'm | :05:58. | :06:03. | |
thinking about the children in the Dadaab Camp who have got nothing. | :06:03. | :06:09. | |
When it is windy, it can be scary and it is hard for me to imagine | :06:09. | :06:11. | |
what they are going through. Droughts aren't new in this part of | :06:11. | :06:16. | |
Africa. They have been recorded for hundreds of years. Weather here can | :06:16. | :06:18. | |
be inconsistent and it is not unusual for rains to fail. | :06:18. | :06:28. | |
Sometimes for a couple of years in a row. | :06:28. | :06:33. | |
There have been wars. That makes it harder for people when drought | :06:33. | :06:37. | |
comes. Almost all the people arriving come from Somalia. Years | :06:37. | :06:41. | |
of fighting here made it one of the most dangerous places on earth, | :06:41. | :06:44. | |
lots of different groups are fighting for control of the country. | :06:44. | :06:50. | |
What is meant to be the official Government, controls only a few | :06:50. | :06:56. | |
streets in the capital. Gun battles happen daily. Hardly any children | :06:56. | :06:59. | |
get to school and the rubbish in the street hasn't been cleared away | :06:59. | :07:04. | |
for 20 years. Off the coast, pirates attack ships and take | :07:04. | :07:07. | |
foreigners hostage. All this makes it really hard to build a life in | :07:08. | :07:11. | |
Somalia, most people have very little so when the rains don't come | :07:11. | :07:14. | |
and their crops fail and animals die, they have to leave their homes | :07:14. | :07:24. | |
:07:24. | :07:26. | ||
We're staying with the charity at a compound which is surrounded by | :07:26. | :07:31. | |
security and barbed wire. Over here, we have the tents that were put up | :07:31. | :07:35. | |
for the journalists, who have come out here to cover the story. Over | :07:35. | :07:37. | |
here we have the kitchen and somewhere to eat. There is a TV | :07:37. | :07:40. | |
room for the staff to relax in the evening and this is where we meet | :07:41. | :07:45. | |
our driver every morning who takes us into the centre of the refugee | :07:45. | :07:48. | |
camps. This camp was set-up 20 years ago, | :07:48. | :07:52. | |
when thousands of refugees started pouring into Kenya to escape escape | :07:52. | :07:58. | |
the fighting and Somalia. I had no idea had -- it had been here for so | :07:58. | :08:03. | |
long. I was surprised to find out that it hasn't been made up of | :08:03. | :08:06. | |
ragged tents. Parts of it are like a town. It is busy. There are | :08:06. | :08:11. | |
people out and about buying things, shops, a place where you can buy | :08:11. | :08:14. | |
mobile phone credit and a dentist. It is clear this is a community | :08:14. | :08:16. | |
that has developed over the last 20 years. | :08:16. | :08:21. | |
The kids here even follow premiership football. Chelsea, | :08:22. | :08:29. | |
Arsenal, Man United, anyone for Spurs? Many of the children I met | :08:29. | :08:33. | |
in this bit of the camp were born here, but one of the strange things | :08:33. | :08:37. | |
about growing up in a refugee camp is that it is really difficult to | :08:37. | :08:41. | |
leave. It is too dangerous to go back to Somalia and the Kenyan | :08:41. | :08:45. | |
Government wants to keep all the refugees in one place. Everyone we | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
met wanted to leave this camp and move to Europe or America, but only | :08:49. | :08:59. | |
:08:59. | :09:06. | ||
a tiny number ever get that chance.. We like. We like. Hi guys. | :09:06. | :09:09. | |
Around half of the children in the camps go to school and this is one | :09:09. | :09:13. | |
of the typical schools that we've come to today. There is about 2,000 | :09:13. | :09:17. | |
students here aged between five and 19 years old and they stick to the | :09:17. | :09:24. | |
Kenyan national curriculum. They learn Swahili, maths and science | :09:24. | :09:31. | |
and they have given us a fantastic reception this morning. | :09:31. | :09:35. | |
There are between 100 and 500 children in each class. They have | :09:35. | :09:39. | |
run out of classrooms here and some of the lessons have to be taught | :09:39. | :09:42. | |
outside. The headmaster told me that this | :09:42. | :09:46. | |
morning they had to accept 24 new kids who were escaping the drought | :09:46. | :09:51. | |
and you are having to accept more kids every day? Yes, every day new | :09:51. | :10:00. | |
arrivals. Every day. 60 a day. One of the children who had just | :10:00. | :10:04. | |
arrived was Hussain who fled Somalia. It was his first day and | :10:04. | :10:07. | |
the first time he ever been to school. | :10:07. | :10:14. | |
TRANSLATION: My parents died before I left Somalia. I left because of | :10:14. | :10:21. | |
the drought. I sleep in the open. I can't get enough food. Life is very | :10:21. | :10:26. | |
hard here. But it is better than before. I asked Hussain what he | :10:26. | :10:29. | |
wanted to be when he grew up. He told me he couldn't think that far | :10:29. | :10:33. | |
ahead and at the moment all he wanted was to get a proper | :10:33. | :10:39. | |
education. Hussain had an amazingly tough tough childhood, but many | :10:39. | :10:43. | |
Somali children have it even worse. The United Nationss declared famine | :10:43. | :10:48. | |
in parts of Somalia, that means that one in three children are | :10:48. | :10:51. | |
severely malnourished, many of them are likely to get and it is hard to | :10:51. | :10:57. | |
get help to them. Much of the country is controlled by an | :10:57. | :11:00. | |
extremist group who have links to Al-Qaeda. They don't like western | :11:00. | :11:03. | |
charities and are trying to stop food getting to the people who need | :11:03. | :11:08. | |
it. In camps, charity and aid play ang important role, running things | :11:08. | :11:12. | |
and trying to provide enough food, water, hospitals and schools. | :11:12. | :11:19. | |
But I found out during my trip that refugees are helping each other too. | :11:19. | :11:24. | |
Religious leaders here are giving out, food and clothes and it it is | :11:24. | :11:26. | |
stuff that has been dominated by the refugees who live here that | :11:26. | :11:30. | |
don't have much. They are giving it to some of the new arrivals who | :11:30. | :11:34. | |
have nothing. Over the years, pictures of | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
children caught up in wars and drought in Africa have become | :11:38. | :11:43. | |
familiar sights on our TV screens. But nothing can can prepare you for | :11:43. | :11:46. | |
the moment when you see a child who has lost his parents, or when you | :11:46. | :11:49. | |
meet am family who has been forced to leave their homes and walk for | :11:49. | :11:53. | |
days in the hope of finding food and water. I have been inspired by | :11:53. | :11:57. |