OCHA West Africa Newsletter No. 3

Assistance to IDP Camps in Liberia
Jenemana Camp: Public Health Interventions

Under UNDPs CAP project LIR/01OO3/A/07/31 for emergency support to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), OXFAM (GB) carries out activities in the water and sanitation sector in Jenemana Camp, Grand Cape Mount County. In collaboration with MSF-F and Concern , the project aims at :

• improving the health status of IDPs in Jenemana Camp ,
• contributing to the change in behaviour of IDPs in relation to hygiene needs,
• mobilizing the community on health related issues
• increasing access to sanitary facilities.

Activities planned included the construction of 16 blocks of 4 holes shelter latrines as well as 16 blocks of two chambers bathhouses. In addition, hygiene promotion motivators conducted health and hygiene training and provided 1000 hygiene kits including soaps, buckets and jerry cans, to family heads.

The hygiene promotion activities were undertaken as house to house talks. A child singing group was created and the group has developed songs disseminating health and hygiene messages. Five women and five men from within the IDP community are working as motivators in the camp serving more than 9000 people.

Constraints to project implementation included the bad road, which hampered the delivery of construction materials to the site as well as the additional influx of IDPs, which increased the overall caseload.

Bopolu Camp: Shelter and more......

LWF and DWS provides assistance to about 5000 IDPs relocated from Lower Lofa . The organisations have constructed 13 transit shelters, verified 2091 IDPs and registered another 1409.

Building Schools and Training Teachers in Guinea

The International Rescue Committee - IRC - is one of the many NGOs operating in Guinea within the framework of the CAP 2001. Through UNICEF, the IRC has received funding for Emergency Education of refugee children, and has been working to ensure that school age children in vulnerable populations have access to basic education through the establishment of a safe learning environment and provision of education and recreational material.

In February 2001, more than 50.000 refugees were evacuated and transferred from southern border areas in Guinea to safer and newly established refugee camps further north. This made it possible for the IRC to work safely with programs enabling refugees to cope with life in exile, and the organization has since been setting Emergency Education structures in place in refugee camps in the regions of in the regions of Dabola, Kissidougou, and N'Zerekore.

The immediate response to the educational needs of the younger children in the beginning of the year was to provide 41 one-classroom tents. This not only allowed for a substantial reduction of student congestion, but also made learning more conducive for the children by protecting them from the elements once the rainy season started. These and other classrooms were provided with benches and blackboards, as well as a small amount of copybooks, pens, pencils, erasers and other instructional material.

The IRC also received funding for renovation of destroyed schools in the conflict area and construction of schools in the newly established camps situated further north. 36 schools were renovated in N'Zerekore and 3 four-classroom, semi-permanent buildings were constructed in Boreah, a 45 minute drive from Kissidougou. With room for 50 children in each class and schools being used in morning and afternoon shifts, the three schools in Boreah today provide room for education of 1.200 refugee children. The IRC is, furthermore, constructing a playground close to the buildings, equipped with recreational kits, used car tires, footballs and other games for the children. The completed structures were quite well received and a valuable lesson was learnt regarding the geographical situation of the schools: Due to tensions betweens refugees and host communities, local authorities had been interested in placing the many refugees and their schools at a certain distance from larger towns in the area. After seeing the schools, however, several of the Prefects were so impressed with the buildings that they regretted the decision to place the camps so far from the town, since there is little chance of the host community using the structures in the event the refugees repatriate. The IRC furthermore conducted psycho-social Workshops, where 614 teachers were equipped with psychological principles and pedagogical strategies to appropriately handle traumatic symptoms, and carry out their professional responsibilities effectively. With the introduction of the psychosocial seminar to the teachers, cases of frequent misunderstandings in the camps were reduced considerably. Surveys showed that teachers' professional output have improved considerably as class management problems are being effectively and ably handled. IRC is an international NGO and its presence is found in 33 countries throughout the world, including Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. The organization was founded in 1933 and its staff and volunteers work to provide relief, protection, and resettlement services for refugees and victims of oppression or violent conflict. Through training, education and income-generating programs, IRC is helping to ensure that refugees can develop the skills and gain the opportunities to become self-reliant. IRC is known for its efficiency and wide spread use of volunteers. According to the Wall Street Journal's consumer finance magazine SmartMoney of December 2000, 91.7 percent of the IRC's budget is spent on program expenses.

MANO RIVER UNION:

EC humanitarian aid worth US $15-million

(IRIN) - The European Commission (EC) announced on Tuesday, 21 January 2002, that it has committed 17 million Euro (US $15 million) for humanitarian assistance to victims of the crisis affecting the Mano River countries (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone).

The aid, which will be channeled through the EC's humanitarian aid office, ECHO, will target refugees, internally displaced people (IDPs), and the local population in conflict-affected areas. It will be used to fight malnutrition, boost primary health care, and give support to the child protection sector and disabled people. It also aims to increase the availability of clean water, improve sanitation systems and promote hygiene through education and training at the community level. Emphasis will also be placed on providing shelter materials and other non-food items to the large number of IDPs in the region.

Resettling in Sierra Leone

The resettlement of IDPs from camps to their home areas that have been declared "safe for assisted resettlement" continues. The first phase of the process started on April 17th 2001 and so far over 30,000 IDPs have been relocated to their home areas. For those who have resettled, life remains a growing challenge. The former IDPs have for too long been dependant on assistance from humanitarian agencies, which makes some of them lethargic in their outlook towards life in general. They think they have to be coerced to get involved in any project that should serve them.

They claim to have been exposed to danger as the host communities referred to them in some instances as rebels and also because of the limited amount of resources they had to complete the journey, after being dropped off at the closest point near home. Humanitarian agencies look at the whole process as somewhat successful to date. They have succeeded in getting people out of the over crowded, unhealthy IDP camps and resettled them in safe areas.

From April to October 2001, CARE provided (NFIs) to 5,200 families, i.e. 21,147 beneficiaries. They relocated IDPs from the Western Area camps mainly into areas in the Southern Province - Moyamba, Bonthe and Bo Districts. Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) registered 4,419 people for resettlement from the Port Loko IDP camp in the Northern Province to safe areas within the Port Loko District. Out of this they only had to relocate about 1,500 people as the others had gone ahead on their own since the relocated villages were not very far off. One of the most pressing concerns for the IDPs while considering resettlement was education for their children; agencies have this is as an urgent priority on their list.

Humanitarian agencies have pre-positioned resources for the second and third phase of resettlement scheduled to take place early February. Resettlement of IDPs into Port Loko, Kambia and Tonkolili District will commence on February 12th. Now that the National Resettlement Assessment Committee has declared the whole of the Northern Province safe, ICRC and CARE are on standby for NFI distribution, while WFP and will provide food. Medical services are also provided on the journey by IOM who is in charge of registration and transportation of IDPs. IOM last year provided transport assistance to over 12,500 people. Some agencies are currently doing a follow up on the IDPs who had been resettled. They report that the communities are speedily being rebuilt. The relocated populations appear to be doing fine on their own, making use of all local resources on hand. In order to be more successful, additional shelter projects need to be established nationwide.

SIERRA LEONE: Japanese US $3-million aid

ABIDJAN, 23 Jan 2002 (IRIN) - The Japanese government has approved a US $3-million grant towards the reintegration of former combatants and reconstruction over the next three years. The funds will bed will be managed by UNDP and be implemented through partners including NGOs.

Sierra Leone Encyclopedia

- A new Tool for everyone -

OCHA Sierra Leone has recently developed the "Sierra Leone encyclopedia" - which has been made available under www.reliefweb.int/sle/index.htm and as CD Rom. The product intends to provide useful resource material for humanitarian workers and agencies active in and for Sierra Leone. Information gathered from various sources includes background on INGOs, UN agencies and government departments that have contributed materials to the encyclopedia inter-agency assessments for Kambia, Koinadugu, Port Loko and Kono, data tables and background information on IDPs, refugees and returnees, maps and displacement overviews, district information , photographs etc.

Ways to update the encyclopedia are currently being looked into, as it is imperative to keep the tool useful and informative for users. Submissions and comments to the Humanitarian Information Centre in Sierra Leone are very welcome under hic@sierratel.sl.

OCHA is looking forward to your feedback and comments!

Disclaimer

This item is delivered to you by OCHA Geneva but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations.

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