A decade in limbo : perpetuated dependency, the burden of displacement and untapped promise of Somali regugee women in the Dadaab Camps, Kenya

Abstract

This thesis examines the specific experiences of Somali refugee women who have lived in exile for over ten years. With no option to emigrate to urban centers or third countries, these women occupy the three United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees-operated refugee camps located near Dadaab, Kenya. The research upon which this thesis is based was conducted in the field in Kenya from June-August, 1999, with funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). My study made use of direct interviews and observations with refugee women in the camps, and officials at all levels of camp administration and the regional UNHCR office as well as my own knowledge as a Somali refugee who did not experience camp life.

Although the thesis is broad in scope, its central objective is to examine the nature of refugee women's lives within the camp context. Specifically, it undertakes to describe the geographic, political context of refugee life and to assess the skills and abilities of these women which are/are not utilized by relief aid agencies administer of those camps. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)