After two memorable weeks of medical duty at the world’s largest refugee camp, Dr Mohamed Shahda is back to offer a reality check on the crisis there.
Last October, this dental surgeon decided to take two weeks of his annual leave to volunteer on a humanitarian mission to Africa. Having helped set up the first medical clinic for Somali refugees in Dadaab, he has come back a changed man.
Dr Shahda, along with house surgeon Mohammed Ayad, was part of the first Arab doctors’ team to reach the refugee town of Dadaab under the auspices of the Turkey-based Alliance of International Doctors (AID). Located 100 kilometres from the Somalia border, Dadaab is home to 700,000 refugees, mostly from Somalia.
The nine-hour drive from Nairobi airport, which turned into a two-day ordeal amidst flooded roads, flat tyres and numerous security checkpoints, may have provided an insight as to what lay ahead.
Arriving at the 50 square-kilometre refugee camp area, the enormity of their assignment set in. Hundreds of refugees walked at least ten kilometres every day and waited five hours to see a doctor. They mostly came with gunshot injuries, open cuts and wounds, broken limbs and eye infections; Dr Shahda feared they didn’t have enough diagnostic equipment to diagnose anything more complex than malaria, yellow fever or vitamin deficiency.
“The first three days were very difficult. Treatment seemed impossible in absence of X-ray machines or even blood test equipment,” he says. “Prescribed medication was torn out of packets before it was given out for fear that the patients would sell it to buy food. This was their first priority; that was clear.”
Initially, the camp could handle only around 300 patients daily, but by mid-November the team was able to build a wooden-tin structure — the Bahrain clinic — after AID succeeded in convincing the Kenyan government to allow them to construct this facility.
“We saw refugees fighting amongst themselves to seek medical attention and a fence had to be erected to prevent rioting among waiting patients,” he says.
If the assignment was unlike any other, the appreciation they received also surpassed convention. Hundreds of people escorted the team for a few kilometres when they left the camp a fortnight later. One man arrived clutching a dried piece of cake, possibly an entire day’s meal for his family, to offer them.
Back in Bahrain, the team is trying to raise awareness for Dadaab refugees as the Bahrain clinic will remain closed unless more doctors volunteer to man it.
So far, the group’s Facebook page has generated less than 170 ‘likes’.
“Committing two weeks out of their annual leave for Somali refugees may seem too much for some doctors in Bahrain,” Mohamed opines. “A few showed interest but wanted to know whether they’d be given air tickets and hotel facilities!”
Dr Shahda would like every physician to try this assignment and see the ‘other face’ of the world. There may be an element of risk involved, but media reports about security issues have been much exaggerated,” he believes.
“We’re meeting the Bahrain Medical Society to help enlist doctors to get the clinic running again. We hope to raise enough donations to set up a surgical department and basic equipment such as X-ray machines. After all, these refugees are human beings; they deserve this much at least,” he says.
Doctors and sponsors in Bahrain who wish to help, can write to scre4msomalirefugees@gmail.com
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