Qatar Charity (QC) has distributed food supplies to 1,000 Somali refugee families living in Dadaab camp in Kenya to help them cope with food shortage.

The relief worth QR200,000 was carried out through QC’s field office in the country, in co-operation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which is responsible for managing these camps.

As a first-aid to needy families in refugee camps during the last 10 days of Ramadan, the relief was provided as part of a joint campaign launched by QC and UNHCR in April to raise more than $9.6mn to reach out to 100,000 people.

According to QC, the campaign aims to help Somali returnees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), and reintegrate them with receiving communities by rehabilitating the public infrastructure in the fields of health, education, shelter, water, and sanitation.

UNHCR and QC also seek to enable Somali returnees, IDPs and receiving communities to have access to education, as well as promote “peaceful coexistence and self-reliance”.

In addition, both parties want to provide returnees and receiving communities access to basic services, which will further improve their living conditions.

QC has chosen Dadaab camp, one of the oldest refugee camps in the world, due to the need for food support, especially during the holy month of Ramadan.

The relief project provided a food basket for each family, which consists of rice, sugar, flour, oil and powdered milk.

The project was implemented at a time when refugees living in Dadaab camps faced a shortage of Ramadan food supplies, as most of them depend on aid provided by humanitarian organisations, especially World Food Programme.

The camp was established in northeastern Kenya on the border with Somalia in 1991 when the civil war broke out.

The number of refugees in the camp rose to about 500,000 due to drought in Somalia in 2011. With the start of a voluntary repatriation campaign for Somali refugees, the number now stands at 250,000.

QC is also preparing to implement an educational project for refugees living in the Kakuma camp, the second largest camp in Kenya, in cooperation with UNHCR, Education Above All Foundation and a number of humanitarian organisations.

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