Shukri Ali Aden, a Somali refugee, is living in the Hagadera Refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya. She fled Jamame in Somalia in 1992. She belongs to a women’s group who run a bakery and sell their goods in the refugee camp. Dadaab is the world’s largest refugess camp on the border between Kenya and Somalia. The majority of refugees come from Somalia.
"When I think about Somalia, I think of the freedom we used to have and I hope that Somalia will come back to the world so we can go back to our homeland."
For the past 20 years, ongoing violence has resulted in millions of people leaving Somalia. Over 400,000 Somali refugees live in Dadaab, the largest refugee camp in the world, located in eastern Kenya. With funding from the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO), the International Rescue Committee (IRC) runs Hagadera hospital, which cares for 120,000 of these refugees by providing medicine to help reduce the transmission of diseases, as well as treatment, such as the removal of cataracts, that dramatically improves quality of life. The IRC also helps women to start businesses so they are able to buy firewood and avoid the risk of sexual violence that comes with gathering it in the surrounding bush.