Congo
Mungunga is a temporary camp in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Maombi came to the camp two months ago.
'I have three children, six, three and one year old. My husband is here with us also but he has gone out to find work. We had to leave our home to escape from the conflict. It took us three days to get here by foot; we had to sleep outside along our travels. It was a dangerous time for us: three of my sisters were killed. To get by, we try and sell what we manage to collect and this enables us to buy food. For water, we go to the lake nearby, as there are not many places where we can get water and we have to pay to get clean water. I go alone during the day to collect my water from the lake but I get scared because there are bandits along the road and dangerous gases that come out from the lake.'
Mukishimana, another resident of the camp, adds: 'If I go to fetch wood to use for heating, cooking or to sell I know that there are military out there and that I can get raped. As women we are scared of this. We do not know what we can do about this. I know a case of some women going to gather wood; they were chased by the military who tried to rape them. While running away, one woman fell over. She resisted and they broke her arm and tried to take her away. She managed to get back here with only a broken arm.
'We also are vulnerable when we gather herbs to sell at the market. How are we to survive, how can we get wood without feeling threatened? I stay here; I am too scared to go out. To try and protect ourselves we go in numbers. We get widows and old women who do not have children to accompany us. However, even if a woman is married she has to go and get wood. Men do not come with us as they have to go out and try to make a living to look after the family.
'Five of my children are here. My eldest son was taken away. The eldest child that we have here has gone out to try to get food. I am scared for my daughters; they sometimes go to cultivate land to get something to eat. For a whole day's work they get a banana. 'I spend my nights in this shelter, we are cold and we do not have covers. We have to sleep on these rocks; what other choice do we have? My father, who is 90, has to sleep like this.'
Marie Cacace, Oxfam
Uganda
Klalela, a resettlement camp, was founded in 2005. Although the situation has improved in Uganda, the majority of the 800,000 people living in the north of the country are still refugees. Malnutrition runs at 21 per cent, one of the highest rates in the world. Klalela is run by a camp leader. Many of the families have to collect water from unprotected wells outside the camps.
Sarah is 22. She came to the camp with her children in 2005 to get protection from the Lords Resistance Army (LRA). Her family eat mostly beans, bought with money she earns working in local market gardens. Each meal costs her 600 Ugandan shillings (18p).
'I cook over a fire, and gather firewood. It all takes about nine hours. We eat one meal a day. We drink mostly water. We are always hungry. I cannot remember the last time we ate meat or fish. The children and I suffer from malaria, diarrhoea, fevers and coughs. Every day here is the same.'
Bar-rio, another Ugandan camp, was started in 2001. Food is supplied by the World Food Programme (WFP) - 5kg of beans and 6kg of maize porridge for two months. The water comes from boreholes, which often break.
Susan, 33, came to the camp in 2006. 'Normally we have no breakfast. Last night we ate beans, and pea-and-millet bread. We get a little income from selling part of the ration. I cook on a charcoal stove. If I cook beans it takes about six hours; peas take seven. We drink water or black tea.' Her children are often hungry because she cannot afford to buy food every day. The children, who suffer from diarrhoea and fevers, last ate meat in January. She misses chicken, which she used to rear at home.
Bangladesh
Nayapara and Kutu Palong refugee camps in Bangladesh were established in 1992, when 21,000 refugees were registered as living there. Run by the Bangladeshi government and the UNHCR, they house refugees from neighbouring Burma. Food is provided by the World Food Programme.
Until 2007 'global acute malnutrition' rates were between 16 and 22 per cent, with high levels of disease. Because 5,000 of the refugees living in the camps were not part of the registered refugees they were not eligible for humanitarian assistance. They have to buy food or rely on their relatives to share their rations.
A food ration includes 450g rice, 40g pulses, 20g oil, 10g salt, 10g sugar and 50g blended food. Fortified biscuits are provided to camp schools to encourage school attendance. Over 80 per cent of the camps' population have lived in the camps for over 16 years.
Anawara, 30, has lived in the camps for 16 years; Fatima, 32, who came to the camps in 1992, was forcibly repatriated in 1998 and fled a second time in 2001; Fayzul is 35 and has been in the camp since 1992; Mahmuda, now 20, has been in the camps since he was three. Without freedom of movement, permission to work or access to education, food aid is the main food source. People complain about the monotony of the diet.
Most refugees eat three times a day (breakfast is usually leftovers from the night before). The diet is based on rice. Vegetables are not eaten every day, but spices are an important part of their diet and rations are sold or exchanged for oil, spices, garlic and onion. Dried fish is eaten four times a week but meat is almost never available except during religious festivals.
Malnutrition rates, despite improvement, remain higher than in the rest of Bangladesh, but many people still say they have a better life in the camp than they did in Burma.
Darfur
Abu Shok camp is in North Darfur in the suburbs of state capital El Fasher and was founded three years ago. It is run by NGOs and local community leaders. Food is provided by the World Food Programme and the Sudanese Red Crescent. Around 15 per cent of people are malnourished.
The situation in North Darfur has improved somewhat, but many are still too scared to return to their villages and food, water and healthcare are better in the camps.
Fatima fled to the camp with her family when her village was attacked by the Janjaweed. Many villagers were killed. Everything they owned was destroyed.
'This morning we ate asida [a porridge made of sorghum or millet] with moulah [a sauce made with onions, okra, tomatoes]. We had the same last night. I spend four hours a day cooking two meals. I cook on a three-stone stove, with firewood in the middle. We got the ingredients by bartering and selling part of our ration.' Sometimes the refugees can earn a little doing laundry or construction to buy other foods.
They eat the same food every day. 'We last ate meat a month ago. At home, we ate vegetables and milk every day; we had meat too.' Her children have stomach problems; malaria and diarrhoea are common.
Fatima has other problems living in the camp: 'There are soldiers around, especially at night, when no movement is allowed. During the day when we go to work we hear gun shots in the camp.'
Kenya
Dagahaley camp in Kenya has been in operation since 1992. Its population is 90 per cent Somali, but there are also refugees from Ethiopia, Sudan and the Congo. There is clean water but, as the population increases, this is becoming harder to come by.
Fatuma is 18. She married at 17 and has a baby daughter. Her mother fled from Somalia when she was a child, along with her two brothers and two sisters.
They fled because of persecution: the family is part of the clan of the ruling party and other clans were seeking retribution. Her mother was severely beaten by militia during her flight from Mogadishu and, with her brothers and sisters, faced starvation. They do not know what happened to her father or the rest of their family.
For breakfast they eat injera, a pancake-like bread, and tea. They eat either lunch or dinner; never both. Dinner is often beans and maize from their WFP ration. The women start cooking at 4pm and finish the meal at 8pm. Their rations include wheat flour, maize flour, maize, beans, oil, porridge and salt. Sometimes they buy an onion. The ration is to last 15 days but, by the 10th day, they begin to run low on food and have to go hungry until the next ration is received.
Their only income is through the sale of rations, half of which they sell to buy sugar and milk. Family health problems include malaria, stomach problems, fungal infections, anaemia and measles. Their favourite foods are pasta and goat or camel meat, but they can no longer afford them.
· Additional reporting by Action Against Hunger. AAH is a non-profit organisation and works with the UN and WFP in each of these camps and 40 other countries to alleviate severe hunger. To make a donation, visit aahuk.org, call 020 8293 6137 or send a donation to Freepost Action against Hunger, London SE10 8JA
