Refugee Services: From Drought and Danger to Dadaab

Each year, LSG helps hundreds of refugee families resettle in the United States after spending months or years being displaced in refugee camps

Since January, more than 120,000 Somali refugees have arrived in the already overcrowded camps in Dadaab, Kenya – the largest refugee camp in the world.  Driven there by the prolonged drought in the Horn of Africa which led to a failed harvest and dying animals, coupled with the growing insecurity inside Somalia, many of the refugees have walked for up to 15 days or more to reach Dadaab.

The Lutheran World Federation, which manages the refugee camps in Dadaab, has been hard at work building extensions to the camps to provide a more secure environment for those fleeing Somalia.  For more information on the work of the LWF in Dadaab, see here.

Mohamed Ahmed, Lutheran Services of Georgia Resettlement Case Manager and a former refugee from Somalia, says that it is almost unimaginable to him that even when so many around the world are eager and ready to provide food, water and shelter to those suffering from the drought in his homeland of Somalia, extremist groups refuse to let the help get to the people who need it the most.

To see the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees video, "Kenya: Dadaab Keeps Growing," click here.

For more information on Lutheran Services of Georgia's refugee services, click here.