Isolated people

I have just come back from the Kharaz Refugee Camp in southern Yemen, located about 150 km from Aden, where my office & apartment are. In this camp there are roughly 11,000 refugees there, 5% being non-Somali, but from day to day they leave and others come making it impossible to register accurately. In Kharaz, the conditions are harsh, and much harsher than any location in this country for refugees. The isolated dryland an hour and a half away from the city makes it very difficult to have the very basics to survive; no sanitary water produces diseases, infertile land creates impossible agricultural chances which then introduces famine and dependency on international aid. The possibilities for economic progress, sustainability & local integration in turn become almost nil.

My job however, doesn't directly concern itself with the aforementioned issues. It is however, dramatically affected by them. If children have no food, then they cannot focus in or even find the energy to walk to school. If they have no clean water, then they will often get sick. If they have no income, then they will leave school and beg or wash cars in near by villages, and so on. These obstacles have to be tacled by my colleagues as I liaise with local governments and NGOs to try to improve educational conditions & standards.

Last week I visited the locations where any and almost all educational activity occurs. It seemed that much work has already been done, yet even more work still has to be done. This means that I, as the only one working in Education for the UNHCR in Yemen, have quite a bit to do. This means that my time here (6 months) won't produce many results unless I stay longer. This means that many more posts will come...

What am I doing in Yemen?

Well, I’m an associative education officer for the UNHCR in Yemen. I visit refugee camps to assess their impoverished conditions, extreme needs and underestimated concerns. Then I try to improve their situations. Unfortunately I’m limited to an educational capacity, but since that job alone could keep me in Yemen for a lifetime, I’m more than happy to be here. I try to focus on two camps in southern Yemen and have an office in Aden; a lovely coastal city.

What I must do in more detail is to: -ensure that refugee children participate in suitable education programmes, in appropriate facilities. -go to and host meetings with the ministry of education and various government officials, deans of Universities, head masters of schools, UNICEF, World Food Programme, and other OP/IPs, to discuss vocational training programmes, curriculum development, self reliance activities, etc. -encourage women and girls’ enrolment in schools and literacy courses. -closely monitor the implementation of a Scholarship programme for refugees to study at University, though many end up dropping out due to various obstacles (abuse, pregnancy, resettlement, etc.). -support non-formal education, hire teachers and so on…

Apart from my job I enjoy going to the fish market and buying fish which I then bring to a restaurant to have cooked for me. I pass the time smoking tobaccoless sheeshah, sitting on busy streets drinking tea & coffee, playing chess and speaking Arabic with locals. They all think I’m Syrian or Lebanese based on my looks, then assume my Arabic has just got rusty over the years of international postings. I don’t correct them, it's safer that way...مع السلامة