Somali Pirates
Refuge Camps
Starvation and Poverty

A symptom for something much larger and much more complex.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8001183.stm

You see the pictures and the pleas…donate! Fight piracy!

If you are like me, you feel a twinge of guilt, of pity, of shame, but coupled by a sense of helplessness in the face of tragedy.

…Until Somalia literally comes to your doorstep.

Dedza is a small town on the border of Mozambique, strategically located. (I can walk to Mozambique in 1/2 an hour and see well into it from the top of Dedza Mountain.) It is on the major highway between the two biggest cities in Malawi (Lilongwe and Blantyre). It used to be the major gateway for travellers to South Africa, a meeting place for people willing to leave their homes behind in the hopes of finding a better future in the south.

Dowa is about 150km away from Dedza. Currently, Dowa hosts one of the largest Somali refuge camps around. (Malawi has a good history of hosting refuge camps.) I haven’t been to see it (yet), but Somalia has come to see me. Increasingly, Somalis are leaving the camp, by foot or by truck, and coming to Dedza. They wander the streets and go door to door, begging for food, for money. They are starving. When asked, they tell you they have come to make their way to South Africa, a paradise of prosperity in many’s eyes. They tell you that the camps have no food. That there is no water, no health care. That, like the Somali pirates, there is little other option.

I haven’t been to the camp. I don’t know if they are telling the truth or what their motives are. It is hard for me to guess. I’m pretty sure that the WFP (World Food Programme) provides relief, as does the UN and others.

But I do know how it feels to be faced with a news story, to look into someone’s eyes, hear the broken English and be smacked with an alternate reality.

Somalia has arrived on my doorstep.

(Mom, don’t worry. Dedza is still a nice, safe and friendly place. I have lots of people taking care of me and I’m just fine.)