The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is aiding nearly 70,000 refugees in four of the camps and provides a range of services, including healthcare, drinking water and legal services. In Tham Hin, the southernmost refugee camp in Thailand, the IRC provides healthcare and water to roughly 8,000 people. This work is funded by the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid department.

Photographs and text by Peter Biro/The IRC

Nestled deep in the hills of Western Thailand, the Tham Hin refugee camp is a patchwork of bamboo huts housing almost 8,000 people, including 3,000 children. Since 2005, the IRC has been the camp’s sole provider of health care and drinking water.

From 2006 to 2008, nearly 3,000 refugees from the Tham Hin camp were resettled in the United States. Even so, the number of refugees living in the camp has remained steady as new refugees from Myanmar continue to arrive. IRC medical staff members conduct health screening of all new arrivals in the camp.

The inpatient ward at the IRC-run clinic in the Tham Hin camp has room for about 40 patients at a time. The outpatient ward sees up to 100 people a day. This man is receiving treatment for malaria, a common disease in the camp. Around 50 malaria cases are detected every month. During the rainy season, when mosquitoes are abundant, the number of cases rises to 150 a month.

A pregnant woman, Naw Mu, 23, is helped into an IRC vehicle for transport to a hospital four hours drive away. Parueluk Kesorn, the IRC doctor at the Tham Hin clinic, suspects a premature separation of the placenta from the uterine wall. “She must receive treatment immediately,” she says.

The IRC clinic in Tham Hin also contains a maternity ward. Some 300 children are born there every year. This baby is being cared for by an aunt while the mother is recovering.

Saw Dah, 26, admires his newborn daughter. Although her birth in the IRC clinic was straightforward, like all the children born here she faces an uncertain future. Saw Dah once farmed a small plot of land in Burma but he was forced to leave it. “We have lived in the camp for three years now,” he says. “I’m too afraid to return.”

In the Tham Hin clinic, the IRC provides reproductive and child health care to some 2,000 women and about 3,000 children. Services include pre and postnatal care, family planning, immunizations and supplementary feeding for malnourished children. Here, a mother weighs her child to see if treatment has resulted in weight gain.

In 2008, 165 women were referred by the Tham Hin clinic to Thai hospitals in time to receive life-saving emergency obstetric care. As a result, there were no maternal deaths and only two neonatal deaths, compared to six neonatal deaths the year before.

Refugees are tested for HIV, malaria and other diseases in the Tham Hin clinic laboratory. If a pregnant woman tests HIV-positive, the IRC will enroll her in a program to prevent transmission of the virus from mother to child using powerful and effective antiretroviral drugs. Currently, 16 HIV-infected patients are receiving anti-retroviral treatment. “We also organize yearly campaigns to inform refugees about how HIV is transmitted and to encourage them to come into the clinic for a test,” says Preeyalak Sataranon, the IRC health manager in Tham Hin.

With support from the European Commission, the IRC also trains refugees to become medics, midwives and nurses. In the past year, the IRC has trained ten nurses, seven midwives and twelve medics to provide health services to fellow refugees.

Water is a precious commodity in Tham Hin—especially during the scorching dry season. The IRC provides every camp resident with over 40 litres (10 gallons) of drinking water per day. The water is stored in large tanks where it is chlorinated and tested regularly for bacteria. It is then pumped via plastic pipes to tap stands across the camp.

Two decades after Burmese refugees first began crossing into Thailand, poverty and violent conflict in Myanmar’s ethnic minority areas continue to drive people into Tham Hin and the other camps along the border. Naw Eh Ku, 24, fled her village last year after an uncle was killed and his family lost their small plot of land. “I think I will have to live in Tham Hin for a long time,” she says. “Things will not get any better in my country anytime soon.”

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Which of the following people are refugees?

- The Dalai Lama, leader-in-exile and Nobel Laureate

- Nadia Comaneci, Olympic gymnast

- Mikhail Baryshnikov, dancer

- Gloria Estefan, Grammy Award winning singer

- Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State

Find out when you take the IRC’s World Refugee Day quiz honoring refugees — and their incredible accomplishments, histories and life stories.

Take the quiz and challenge your friends at www.theIRC.org/refugeequiz. (A generous donor will give the IRC $1 for every person who takes the quiz. Help us meet our $15,000 goal!)

Know of other famous refugees? Leave a comment and tell us about them.

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Women in DR Congo: Sarah Mosely/The IRC

Last year we launched a very special online campaign, asking people to send personal messages to survivors of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We wanted to show support for women and girls in Congo by sharing with them messages of solidarity and encouragement from around the world. We planned to deliver these messages to Congolese women through a network of community-based organizations that we support in the Congo.

The response from IRC supporters was overwhelming. Hundreds of people sent heartfelt messages about the effects of sexual violence, describing their own experiences and encouraging Congolese women and girls as they face extreme stigma and rejection from their families and communities.

(If you want to see a sample of these messages, check out this blog post from last year titled “We Are Listening.”)

Since then, IRC staff members have met with survivors of sexual violence representing three different Congolese women’s associations that we support. We recorded their replies and translated them to share with you. Now we want to share some of these stirring messages from the women and girls who received personal messages from around the world.

“These messages comfort us and encourage us in our work. It is very encouraging to know that what we are doing, which often feels so small and insignificant, is important in the eyes of the rest of the world.”   -  Mamans pour l’Education et Development

“It was surprising to hear that in America, where you have good laws that people respect, that you also have sexual violence but this made us realize we are not alone. We want to thank you for having the courage to share your thoughts with us.”   -  Kalamo

“I wanted to say first ‘pole sana’ (sorry) to the people who wrote who have also experienced sexual violence. We thought we were the only ones having this here in the DRC. Reading these messages helps me know that we are valued. I am very happy to read your words because they make me feel like I am loved by very important people.”  -  Collectif des Femmes de Kamanyiola

“I am 21 yrs old and a member of this association. Armed men came into my house and killed my father. Three of them then raped me and my mother. It has cost our family a lot. This association has helped us a lot, and little by little, with their help, we are making sense of our sadness. But let me tell you, for me, rape has been the hardest and most complex problem I’ve ever faced in my life. Thank you so very much for taking the time to think about us and write us. It gives me courage but also makes me proud to think that there are people in the world who think about us and are willing to do something on our behalf.”  -  Collectif des Femmes de Kamanyiola

If you want to help survivors of sexual violence in Congo and around the world, there are many things you can do. Here are three suggestions:

> Learn what IRC is doing for survivors of sexual violence

> Read the in-depth testimony of an IRC staff member who testified last month before the U.S. Senate on responding to sexual violence in the Congo [PDF]

> Support our humanitarian programs in the Congo and help women and children whose lives have been shattered by violence

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“My job means that I have to be away from my two young sons for long periods of time – sometimes up to two months,” says Peter Mutanda. “It’s very difficult for me and I miss everything from helping them with their homework to playing with them on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I try to call them every day, but only if the unreliable Kenyan phone network allows!”

Mutanda works with the International Rescue Committee in Lodwar, a remote, arid place in northwest Kenya renowned for prolonged drought and frequent cattle rustling between rival clans. It’s a plane ride away from his wife and sons Alvin (8) and Anton (3), so Mutanda only gets to catch up with them every few weeks or so.

“The older boy understands that I have to work to make ends meet,” says Mutanda, “but he does get very frustrated when I stay away too long. The younger one is always asking me if I will come home ‘tomorrow’. They both want me to work and stay near them, which is hard, but my situation is so much better than many of the families here in Lodwar. They really are struggling with a myriad of problems.”

The IRC has worked in Lodwar, northwest Kenya since March 2008. We started out with a small HIV/AIDS program that has now expanded across six field sites. It serves a population of 250,000 with comprehensive services from voluntary counseling and testing to home-based care for people living with AIDS. In February 2009, the IRC also launched a community health care program for mothers and babies of nomadic groups.

“The biggest challenge for mother and fathers in this area is how to raise and support their children when abject poverty is so widespread,” says Mutanda. “Not only do families lack ways to earn an income, but they face a dearth of social services like adequate education and quality health care. It’s not easy to raise a family here.”

The IRC is encouraging fathers in particular to get involved in educating their children on important health matters, including sexuality and reproductive health. We run a weekly radio program and our five-week ‘families matter’ educational course is helping parents to find new ways of talking to their children and teenagers about sensitive subjects.

One elderly male participant, who was too shy to be named, says: “Initially I wasn’t open; I wasn’t able to speak to my children about sex. According to Turkana tradition, these things aren’t discussed openly, so children get embarrassed and surprised when their parents try to talk about them. But since I’ve started coming to this course, I’m able to talk to them.”

Such words keep Mutanda motivated in his work. “On Father’s Day,” he says, “we must remember that fathers are role models for their children. Fathers must demonstrate high levels of integrity in words and deeds and participate fully in their family’s development.”

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Photo: Joanne Offer/The IRC

Today is World Refugee Day.  Joanne Offer writes from Dadaab camp, eastern Kenya – now one of the largest refugee settlements in the world.

The official statistics tell us that the population in Dadaab refugee camp has now exploded past 275,000. Even though I’ve seen this for myself, I find it hard to put such numbers into context, they are so unimaginably huge. The theme of this year’s World Refugee Day – real people, real needs – is therefore apt. It’s a good time to remember the individual men, women and children who make up this massive population.

Take 23-year-old Halima Ahmed Abdi. She’s been in Hagadera camp, Dadaab, for two months having recently fled civil war and drought in Somalia.

“I came here from Baidoa because it was just too dangerous for human life,” says Halima. “There are too many problems in Somalia – there’s the worry that our enemy might kill us and the threat of starvation. We lost camels and cows to the drought.”

Like all new arrivals, Halima was given a food ration card but she didn’t receive a plot of land. Dadaab’s camps were declared ‘full’ in August 2008, so all new refugees must stay with friends or relatives. Some are lucky and can share mud-brick houses with those refugees who have been on site for years. Others have to make do with what they can and erect flimsy structures out of plastic sheeting, rags and wooden sticks.

Halima says: “My cousin has given me a room in their compound. It’s made of plastic sheeting and sticks. Fourteen people live in the compound and we don’t have a latrine so we share one with a neighbor.”

Halima Photo: Joanne Offer/The IRC

Kenya is now entering its long rainy season, when diseases such as malaria and cholera typically become more widespread. In congested camps like Dadaab, where families are living so close together, the threat is all too real.

Halima says: “My two boys are here at the hospital because they are very sick. They were not like this before the journey from Somalia, but it was tiring and since they’ve been in the camp they’ve had serious diarrhea and lost a lot of weight.”

The International Rescue Committee runs a hospital and four health posts in Hagadera, Dadaab, and admissions typically jump during the wet season. On one of my visits, the pediatrics ward was struggling to cope, with 33 patients and only 27 beds. Our staff are working round the clock, but more funding and more resources are clearly needed as Dadaab’s population continues to spiral.

The latest figures from the United Nations show an average of 7,000 newcomers every month so far this year. The Kenyan government and the international community must step up and do more to ensure that these people’s needs are met on World Refugee Day and beyond.

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Darfuri refugee boy in Chad. Photo: Melissa Winkler/The IRC

The International Rescue Committee was founded in 1933 at the suggestion of which famous refugee and Nobel Laureate? 

Find out when you take our World Refugee Day quiz honoring refugees — their incredible accomplishments, histories, and life stories

Plus, a generous donor will give the IRC $1 for every person who takes the quiz. Help us meet our $15,000 goal.

Please take the quiz and challenge your friends: www.theIRC.org/refugeequiz

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Photo: Gerald Martone/The IRC, in Iraq

Looking for a meaningful Father’s Day gift?  Give a special IRC gift basket that honors Dad and helps the IRC in our work leading the way home for families fleeing war, oppression and disaster.  You can purchase a gift basket at www.FromHarmtoHome.org

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Photo: Michael Scharff/The IRC

Lazaro Loyep’s shovel cuts into the dry earth. It takes him a few attempts before he manages to fill it with soil, which he deposits into a plastic container to be carted away. Behind him, scattered across an area roughly the size of a football field, some 280 other men and women are also busy chopping, scooping and carting away the earth with shovels, pick axes and wheel barrows.

Here in Rupa, Karamoja, in Uganda, much of the community has gathered to work on one of five dams being de-silted as part of a project organized by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), to improve access to water for villagers’ livestock. In recent years, a prolonged drought has led to serious water shortages, so it is vital to ensure that existing sources provide as much water as possible.

“During the dry season, and particularly when there are prolonged periods of drought, herders are forced to journey long distances in search of water for their cattle,” says Ben Obim, IRC’s environmental health officer in Karamoja. “On the way, they may cross into a rival clan’s area, leaving them susceptible to attack.”

With few other opportunities to earn a livelihood in this part of Uganda, local clans are highly protective of their cattle and the few sources available to water them.  So, when rival herders try to use their water supply, conflict can occur. And, in an area where automatic weapons are abundant, events can quickly escalate out of control.

“By de-silting dams, we’re increasing the amount of water they can hold and so the amount available for people to share. This water will remain here longer during the dry season, meaning that people won’t have to seek water elsewhere so often,” Obim says: Currently some dams, including the one in Rupa, are so clogged with silt that they can barely hold more than a month’s supply of water.

Photo: Michael Scharff/The IRC

At the dam in Rupa, I meet Lotud Lopeykonga, 34. “Right now the only water is far away,” says Lopeykonga, pausing momentarily from chipping at an embankment. “If we can bring our animals to drink here, then things will be more peaceful.”

Working a short distance away, Aleper Lotyang, 29, adds: “The closest place where we bring our animals every day is a two-hour walk away. This dam is going to help us.”

For their efforts, Lotyang, Lopeykonga, and other workers are given vouchers that they can swap for agricultural goods, such as hoes, ox plows and livestock vaccines.  However, 20 percent of the voucher’s value is paid in cash so that workers can receive some money for other, urgent concerns.

“This project alone won’t be able to end the rivalry between clans,” says Obim, “But when I look around and see the number of people working on just this one dam and their enthusiasm for the project, I can say this is definitely going to have a measurable impact on easing tensions.”

Funding for IRC’s Environmental Health projects in Karamoja is being provided by the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) and the European Development Fund (EDF).

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