November 16, 2011

DADAAB, Kenya/GENEVA – Every morning at 5 a.m. in the compound of The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Dadaab, emergency coordinator Fred Otieno rises.

He likes to be the first in the showers, so he can get back to his room to go through any overnight emails.

Breakfast, two hours after he rises, is a cup of Kenyan tea, some fried bread and sweet potato.

If he's going into the field he has to be in the parking lot at 7:45 sharp to catch a ride with the convoy.

If he doesn't make the 8 a.m. convoy, there won't be another until 2 p.m. and a morning can be wasted.

Before Otieno started working for the LWF, a member of the global humanitarian network of churches ACT Alliance, he was a training manager for St John Ambulance in Nairobi.

His background in emergency management prepared him well for his current job. When the refugee crisis exploded in June, he was pressed into service.

At the beginning of the day, he'll plan his route, starting with the farthest out field office, working back, often hitching rides along the way.

"I'll check with the field staff, see what is happening," he says. "I'll go to the reception areas and see how many arrivals there are, and what have we done for them so far." Reception Centers Six mornings a week, the reception centers at each of the three camps – Hagadera, Dagahaley and Ifo – are open to receive hundreds of new arrivals.

People will be rationed 15 days of food, given a cooking kit, mats and tarpaulins, and shown an orientation video. The vulnerable – the aged, orphaned children, the handicapped or others at risk – are identified and given special attention by LWF case workers.

Most mornings Otieno talks to the reception center staff about any complications received. He'll check in the relocation area about new arrivals seeking proper tents in new camps.

By mid-morning he'll be in full swing, in a Land Rover, hopping across the khaki-orange sand and the camps will have sprung to life.

The longest-tenured refugees have re-made their lives in Dadaab, the world's biggest refugee camps, over two decades and each of the camps has a large, central market district.

By midday, Otieno is trying to make sure he's on a convoy back to the LWF compound.

Lunch is at 1 p.m. and then he'll walk over to the neighboring compounds of other aid organizations, working to coordinate their efforts.

"For the LWF, our goal is to uphold the rights of the poor and the oppressed," he says. "Because we have the overall mandate to manage all of the camps, we try to make sure that nothing – nothing, nothing – happens that shouldn't happen in the camps." Routine Break for Worship

The routine breaks on Sunday, when Otieno crosses the road next to the compound to attend a service at the community worship centre.

Services here are held four times on a Sunday – English and Kiswahili services in the morning for Protestants and the same languages in the afternoon for Roman Catholics. Although nearly all the 463,000 refugees are Muslims, the predominant faith among the camp workers is Christianity.

"I'm a Christian and I believe in God. The people we work with also believe in God. We all believe that ... we do unto others what we would like them to do to us. In the Bible, this is the greatest commandment," says Otieno.

"I can't give the Somali community everything that they don't have right now but I would like to give them some level of dignity and comfort because they're away from home.

"We all believe in the existence of God and he's a God that doesn't want to see people suffer. I don't feel nice when someone else is suffering and I have the skills, knowledge and time to change something in their lives. We give them hope and hope can make them do things in a different way."

He points out, "In humanitarian work, there shouldn't be ‘we' and ‘them.' It is all of us together. If we work together as one system and break down the barriers, we would be surprised to see that even the refugees have brilliant ideas. Once we normalize things, the lives of everyone can go back to normal."

Around 5 p.m., after meetings, Otieno is back in the office checking his email, dousing proverbial fires and meeting his boss.

On a quiet day, he'll play volleyball with the rest of the men in the camp before dinner. After dinner, gin rummy is the game of choice, unless an English Premier League soccer game is being broadcast.

The LWF tries to keep Dadaab staff on a seven-weeks-on and one-week-off schedule. Spending so much time together, working and living in close quarters, they become part of a big family.

The crisis of the recent months has stretched the staff. By mid-September, Otieno was working for a ninth week without a break.

"The most difficult thing about my job is the language barrier." With better knowledge of Somali he believes he could perform better. "I am trying to learn the basics so I can communicate more directly. I am impressed that some of them are learning English, so why shouldn't I learn Somali." Live with Dignity

In the evening, he'll probably make a last trip to the office to plan the next day's work and gather some reports to read before bed. Self-described as a "nocturnal animal," Otieno will read until midnight, or later.

"It's a well-packed day," he says. "Our satisfaction is always to see to it that people who fled their country to come to this particular camp are made comfortable and allowed to at least live with dignity."

"When you go to bed knowing that at least one extra person has a roof over their head, they've gotten food, they've gotten water, they have access to medical services … you're a happy man."

He adds, "God has a purpose for us being here to make a difference in the lives of these people, so we must try and help them enjoy their stay, because at the end of the day we all need one another."

Support the LWF response: http://www.lwf-assembly2003.org/lwf-interspire/link.php?M=2227&N=542&L=86&F=T.

Read more: http://www.lwf-assembly2003.org/lwf-interspire/link.php?M=2227&N=542&L=88&F=T.

Further updates available at: http://www.lwf-assembly2003.org/lwf-interspire/link.php?M=2227&N=542&L=89&F=T.

Lutheran World Information
Written for LWI by Melany Markham and Jonathan Ernst in Dadaab, Kenya.