(ERGO) – In our continuing series on life in IDP camps across Somalia, Radio Ergo visited a displaced people’s camp in Baidoa. Hanano One camp is one of the oldest camps in the region and has become home to many who have raised their families there and do not wish to return to their former lives as farmers or pastoralists in the rural areas.
Habibo Mohamed Nur told Radio Ergo that she doesn’t see herself as a displaced person because she has access to all the basic services she needs in the camp that she calls home.
Habibo, 58, and her family were among the first 10 families to settle in this place that has grown to become Hanano One camp in the southern Somali city of Baidoa.
Her family were pastoralists, living in Goof-gadud in Burrey 30 km away. After losing all their livestock to recurrent drought, they trekked to the city in March 2006 seeking help and never looked back.
The camp is relatively well established. It is made up of four-square-metre rooms built five years ago by the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), on land donated by the government.
According to the camp’s residents, they have been assisted by DRC with housing, the construction of toilets, and cash distribution for almost five years until the end of last year. cash cards. World Vision has provided cash cards and education programmes, while Sama Organisation provides health care.
There is one iron-sheet toilet for every four or five families. There is also a children’s playground with various items of play equipment.
“Having medical services and free education for my children, there is no reason to go back, here in this camp we get food and sometimes get money from aid agencies, my life is very comfortable here compared to how my life used to be back in the village,” Habibo told Radio Ergo.
“My plan is to move out of the camp and buy a house in the city and live in my house like the people of the city do. I am still in the camp because of financial issues. If it wasn’t for that I would have moved out of the camp.”
Meanwhile, Hawo Adan Osman and her family left their farm behind them in Bay-gadud village in Bay region and have no plans to return to farming.
Hawo told Radio Ergo that she had experienced hardships but was now able to get everything she needed in the camp.
They are living in a house made of iron-sheets. Six of her children are studying in a school in the camp. They also have access to a clinic taking care of their health needs.
Nobody has planted on the family’s farm at home for all the years they have been away. Hawo says she wants to stay in the camp for the rest of her life to ensure her children get an education.
“I’m satisfied with my life in the camp. I have learned a new lifestyle during the 14 years I have been here. Everything I may require I can get here; medical and education are all free and we get some cash donations.
I have no reason to go back to my old life and I’m not hoping to go back,” Hawo said.
One of the camp elders, Suleiman Adan Isaak, told Radio Ergo that most of the 181 families felt similarly satisfied with life in Hanano One and are not planning to return home.
Four of his children are at school and he wants to see them graduate from university. He is not planning to go back to his rural home in Maragabay, Bakool region, because there are no education or health facilities there.
“Everyone in this camp thinks about how to become a resident in the city, as no one is planning to go back to the rural areas. We live the way everyone else lives here.
As the elders of the camp, we warn the youth and tell them that moving back to the rural area is a mistake and they should get educated here so that they can support their families,” Isak said.
The most significant stages of life have occurred in the camp for residents like Aweys Suleiman. He arrived in Hanano One at the age of 19 with his grandmother from Bonka village in Bay. Now at 33, he is married with four children. His children know only the life in the camp.
“I have spent the most important part of my life in this camp; it is in this camp that I got married and my children were all born here.
My plan for the future of the family is to educate the children and continue living here,” Aweys told Radio Ergo.
