Q Radio: A look inside the world’s largest refugee camp

By David Hunter

Just two short years ago, a piece of land lay open to the elements.

Dotted along it’s horizon sat a handful or traditional African mud huts, marking out a few small villages.

Life there hasn’t changed much through generations of baking hot summers and torrential rainy season downpours.

In the last 24 months, 870,000 people have taken to calling this place ‘home’.

This is the Bidibidi refugee settlement.

LISTEN: Q Radio's David Hunter meets residents of the world's largest refugee camp:

According to the UNHCR the site in Northern Uganda, close to the South Sudan border, is the world’s largest Refugee Camp.

Almost all of the people settled here have fled a war between the Government and rebel forces.

South Sudan President, Salva Kiir, says there was an attempted coup by soldiers who were loyal to a former leader. That’s now escalated into ethnic battles across the country.

IMAGE: Q Radio's David Hunter travelled to Uganda with Trocaire 

Of Uganda’s 1.4million new refugees it’s estimated around one million are from South Sudan. However, officials say they still have no plans to close the border.

To put that in context, Northern Ireland has accepted 860 refugees in the same period of time.

Camp Bidibidi, based in Yumbe, is made up of five sections. It’s no longer accepting new entries and the Ugandan government says it’s working to implement structure, allowing residents to thrive.

Each new arrival was given a small plot of land where they’re encouraged to build a home and start trading.

It took less than an hour to see the challenges that come with such a chaotic and rapidly expanding ‘new start’. 

Access to water, food and medical care are listed as top priorities. Several aid agencies are helping. Education and training is also lacking.

IMAGE: Trocaire - People que for water at the BidiBidi refugee settlement 

The Irish charity Trocaire is working with it’s partners in Uganda to plan for long term sustainability.

It supports teams in the camp to ensure people have the skills and knowledge to make a difference.

Q Radio travelled with some of those partners to see how the money we donate at home is being distributed and spent on the ground.

Just inside the perimeter of the camp in a small shack we met Jackline Sitima, a 25-year-old mother of two (Masiko aged 6 & Juel aged 4). She smiled as she showed us her prized sewing machine, exclaiming: “I am surviving.”

IMAGE: Jackline works outside her home in Bidi Bidi 

Jackline was given support by one of Trocaire’s main partners, Caritas. It helped provide training and funding so she could set up a small business. Her Husband didn’t travel with the family to Bidibidi and she’s unsure if she will ever see him again.

 “My children are safe here with me” Jackline said. “I am happy because I am with them, and (with) the work I have here. I can take care of them and if they have a small sickness I can take them to the clinic and buy medicine.”

She continued: “I know their father is not here but we’re just pushing ahead. My life is fine.”

 A short time later we met metal worker, Benson Lopia, who’d also benefited from training and new equipment. Welding gear and a generator mean he’s now supporting pregnant wife, Juru’annt and three children who are aged five and under.

At the age of 28, Benson had seen the brutality of the war in South Sudan. His friends, brother and father had been killed without warning.

Benson said: “We’re praying for South Sudan to get peace. I’m not going back. I want to be here because I’m tired of war.”

He explained how men would be dragged from their homes and taken to the bush where they would be beaten and killed, apparently for no reason.  “My mother is not feeling okay. She cries a lot and I often think about how my father died” He said. “They kill everyone, daytime and night time.”

IMAGE: Benson was given training by Trocaire's partners to start a new metal work business  

The situation in South Sudan is one the people of Uganda can relate to, and is likely why the Government is keen to help.

For almost two decades President Yoweri Musevini’s Government battled rebel forces. The most notable was Joseph Kony’s ‘Lords resisantce Army’.

Hundreds of thousands of children were forced from towns and villages across Uganda to become Kony’s so called ‘Child soldiers’. The LRA was a notoriously violent group.

The Office of the Prime Minister says Uganda can’t let it’s neighboring brothers and sisters suffer, now that the country is enjoying relative peace.

Bidibidi’s Settlement Commandant Robert Baryamwesiga said: “We are not a very rich country, but our hearts are so big.”

“We’re not in this because it is our obligation” said Robert. “The whole world has an obligation to help. This is a reminder to the international community that people will suffer without you.”

He continued: “We will never chase refuges back, because even with limited resources we can try and help. We have that obligation to save lives from danger.”

IMAGE: Trocaire - The sun sets at the world's largest refugee camp, Bidi Bidi,Uganda.

The most impressive thing about ‘the world’s largest refugee camp’ is how the government works with local communities to ‘empower’ residents, rather than offer a temporary fix.

Every scheme implemented here must benefit the host community’s residents or land by at least 30%, with refugee’s claiming the remaining 70%. Some local leaders want that split to become 50/50 and discussions are ongoing.

Signage at a government office on the way into the camp reads “Empowering refugees and host communities with opportunities to live a better life.”

It was clear money donated here was offering at least some small support to achieve that goal.