‘The UN is all I’ve got’
Rhoda Achol Kongor has lived most of her life as a refugee. The UN has been her constant provider.
Rhoda Achol Kongor, a 35-year-old mother of four is one of the 180,000 refugees living in Kenya’s Kakuma camps.
“I became a refugee at a very young age,” said Rhoda. “My family fled fighting and hunger in Sudan and sought refuge in Ethiopia’s Itang refugee camp in 1987. I was only four.”
The conditions in Ethiopia were equally rough. Rhoda’s mother died in the camp and her only surviving uncle took her to the Kenya border.
They settled in Kakuma in 1992 and Rhoda enrolled in a local primary school. Life was beginning to normalize.
But at the age of 12, Rhoda’s uncle married her off to a 78-year-old man.
“I dropped out of school in class four to become a wife,” she said.
Not long after the death of her husband, Rhoda would defy her uncle and marry another man with whom she now has four boys.
The UN — a constant source of help
“The UN [United Nations] is all I’ve got,” she said. “It’s our mother and father. I depend on the UN for all my needs.”
Rhoda’s uncle returned to South Sudan and they fell out when she left her ‘matrimonial’ home. Her late husband’s family is now demanding a reimbursement of the dowry.
“I cannot go back to South Sudan,” she said. “I’ve lived almost all my life as a refugee; I’ve never set foot in my parent’s birthplace and my only living relative wants nothing to do with me.”
While life in Kakuma is safe, it is still not completely without risk.
“Some of my late husband’s family still live in Kakuma,” she explained. “The UN had to relocate me to a different camp for my own protection.”
Happy for food and shelter, but it is ‘not enough’
Rhoda is grateful for the services she receives in the camps.
“The UN gives us food, our children go to school and we have a place we can call home,” she said. “I’m happy for the help given to us; but lately, things are changing for the worse — everything is reducing.”
According to Rhoda, the level of assistance today does not measure the same as a few years back. In October 2017, a shortage of funds forced the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to reduce food rations.
“The food I get today only lasts about three weeks, and the variety is limited,” she said.
In addition to the in-kind food ration, Rhoda’s family of six receives 1,900 Kenyan shillings (almost US$19) from WFP every month to buy fresh food from the local markets.
“I use the cash to buy wheat flour, milk, fish or sugar,” said Rhoda. “But it is still not enough — we are appealing for more.”
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In 2017, WFP provided food and cash to refugees thanks to the generosity of donations from Canada, China, the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), Germany, Hungary, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Click here to read more about WFP’s work in Kenya.
