People with Passion - Henok Ochalla

 

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IT’S TIME FOR A NEW APPROACH TO REFUGEE CAMPS | Henok Ochalla | TEDxKakumaCamp

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Henok has worked for UNHCR for most of his life. He spent many years working in  Kakuma camp, but as project manager of the new community being built next to it –  the Kalobeyei settlement, he witnessed an idea where refugees and the host community could work, study and receive services side-by-side. This idea would grow to become the embodiment of a new, better, way to approach refugee situations worldwide. (Recorded at TEDxKakumaCamp on June 9, 2018) Henok Ochalla was the project manager for the development of Kalobeyei settlement in Kakuma and has been a humanitarian worker for The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR for more than 20 years, serving in five African countries. He believes moving from the dependency of the camp model to an integrated settlement approach fostering self-reliance is the future for empowering refugees. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

Faced with increasing numbers of refugees seeking safety in Kenya, in 2013 UNHCR requested the allocation of additional land for the expansion of the Kakuma Refugee Camp, in order to decongest the Kakuma Refugee Camp. At the time, in 2015, the camp was hosting a population of 183,000 individuals, with a capacity of 70,000 that it was designed for.

In June 2015, the Turkana County Government, at the request of the Central Government, allocated a site near the Kalobeyei Township, situated about 40km northwest of Kakuma, and measuring 15 square kilometres.

The land was officially handed over by the County Government and people of Turkana on World Refugee Day, 20 June 2015, in the presence of the Governor of Turkana County, Hon. Josphat Nanok, Mr. Victor Okioma (representing the Cabinet Secretary for Interior and Coordination of National Government), and the then Commissioner for Refugee Affairs, Mr. Haron Komen.

The Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement is based on the concept of seeking new and innovative approaches to refugee assistance programming, which could benefit both refugees and the communities hosting them.

UNHCR and the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government agreed with the Turkana County Government to develop a settlement that would promote the self-reliance of refugees and host communities by providing them with better livelihood opportunities and enhanced service delivery. In collaboration with the World Bank, UNHCR developed the Kalobeyei Integrated Social and Economic Development Programme (KISEDP), a multi-agency collaboration to develop the local economy and service delivery at Kalobeyei. This represents a major paradigm shift. The overall objective of this initiative is to re-orient the refugee assistance program to contribute to improvement of the socio-economic conditions of the refugees and host communities, better prepare the host community to take advantage of emerging economic opportunities in upcoming extraction and potential irrigation-fed agriculture and reduce over-dependence on humanitarian aid and support the refugees to achieve durable solutions.

KISEDP was officially launched on 14 December 2018, with Governor of Turkana County, Mr. Josphat Nanok being the key speaker in an event hosted by UNHCR Kenya in Nairobi.

Read more about the Kalobeyei Socio-economic Development Plan.

Transcript

0:00

[Music]

0:04

we are today in Kakuma refugee camp just

0:11

instead of here there is a new place for

0:15

Refugees being created but it is not a

0:20

camp it is a community involving

0:23

refugees and the locals it is called

0:28

Calabi I would like to tell you about

0:32

Calabi and the story of a refugee camp

0:36

that evolved over years but before I do

0:40

so I would like to begin with something

0:44

fundamental dignity I have served in

0:50

five different countries across Africa

0:55

helping refugees and displaced people

0:59

from over dozen countries who spoke more

1:02

than 20 languages and all that time I

1:07

have realized two fundamental truths

1:12

people who are fled from war and

1:15

persecution do not just want to be safe

1:20

they want to live their life with

1:22

dignity dignity is primarily about

1:26

respect self-respect and as involves

1:31

practical things or be to be able to

1:34

decide what we want to do with our time

1:37

we want to go to work to be able to

1:40

support our families and process

1:44

education and training even to cook the

1:48

food that we want to eat at the time of

1:51

our choice it is something that all of

1:54

us want including the refugees over

2:00

decades of experience I have seen

2:04

dignity of the hat of our support to the

2:08

refugees I remember when I first joined

2:11

the UN refugee agency you

2:13

this year I was very young man few years

2:18

out of school and I had worked with the

2:22

government of Ethiopia and knew little

2:23

about refugees to me their daily

2:29

situation is not part of my life they

2:32

are people from next door

2:33

Sudan now South Sudan constantly at war

2:37

and needed help from us but then in 1993

2:44

I was offered a job with UNHCR which was

2:51

supposed to last for just three months I

2:54

must admit that I reluctantly took that

2:59

job but that job changed my life forever

3:03

I was hired to reopen a refugee camp

3:09

that had been closed few years earlier

3:13

in my home town called gambelli in

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Ethiopia I was a very young gentleman as

3:21

I said early on a little bit of a

3:23

confident open I come for a few thousand

3:28

people it's not a problem but on day one

3:32

Wow

3:33

I saw things that I have never ever seen

3:38

in my life

3:39

before I was taken by experienced aid

3:42

workers to a transit come first

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there I saw 17,000 feet ease or just

3:50

flat civil war from Sudan

3:54

I saw severely malnourished children

4:00

mothers crying and fathers who could not

4:02

provide for their families I was

4:06

overwhelmed but amazed that the courage

4:10

that I was seeing all around me these

4:14

people have fled unexplicable violence

4:17

having worked for weeks without even a

4:20

proper meal but in a matter of few hours

4:23

I've seen experienced head work

4:27

providing a temporary place to call home

4:31

hotmail refugees cooking beans and maize

4:37

flour it was at that moment I realized

4:41

that I knew exactly what I was doing

4:44

here at that moment I believed

4:49

humanitarian work is my calling I was

4:58

hired to open a camp which is called

5:02

Pineda but with the experience I had in

5:06

the transit camp I realized that the

5:09

refugees are determined for their life

5:11

we were not just giving refugees some

5:16

sense of security of food or shelter we

5:19

are giving them confidence for them to

5:22

regain their dignity it was a picture I

5:26

would see repeated in Sierra Leone over

5:29

a decade later as women children

5:35

terrified fleeing and crossing border

5:37

from Liberia first they were desperate

5:40

for safety and then for the basic things

5:43

most of us take for granted these people

5:47

literally fled with nothing but clothes

5:50

on their backs it was a real relief to

5:54

see them when they were receiving food

5:57

sleeping mats blankets and a simple

6:01

shelter from us we were once again

6:06

tasked to open another camp it was an

6:12

opportunity to develop a camp where

6:15

refugees could do more than just survive

6:19

we were taking the way we support

6:22

refugees to a new level it was not easy

6:28

when we first saw the line it was just

6:30

Aquash there was literally nothing in it

6:35

but then share alone had a generous land

6:37

policy for Refugees

6:40

it means there will be a place for

6:42

market there will be a place for small

6:45

farms so what we did first is to survey

6:48

the land to figure out which part could

6:50

be used for housing which part could be

6:52

used for farming most of the refugees

6:57

had been farmers back home in Liberia so

7:00

they asked for nothing more than being

7:02

able to provide for themselves and keep

7:04

up with their skills so we build the

7:09

camp and the refugees had safety and a

7:13

little bit of dignity we also developed

7:18

a multi-purpose market where refugees

7:21

and Sara lunians

7:22

could trade side by side we give out

7:28

small loans first crucial investment for

7:31

refugee businesses we also offered

7:35

training financial management training

7:39

and you know what an amazing thing

7:43

happened that I've not seen before

7:49

everyone that took the loan paid their

7:52

loans a hundred percent it was more than

8:02

worrying to see refugees achieve a lot

8:10

few years later when war ended Liberian

8:13

refugees began to return home the time

8:18

they spent in the camp was not

8:20

completely wasted the experience of

8:22

farming and the experience of owning

8:24

businesses has taught them and has also

8:28

enabled them to have savings skills and

8:32

determination to be able to go back to

8:34

rebuild their lives in Liberia I

8:40

reconnected again with the former

8:42

refugee Miss fatimata Vani

8:45

I visited her house of businesses I even

8:52

spent some time with the kids

8:54

in school when she first saw me she

8:57

screamed and said hello I'm happy to see

9:03

you in my home town

9:05

welcome to Liberia it was an emotional

9:08

experience to see fatmata at home

9:12

she showed me around that was destroyed

9:15

during the war she was determined to

9:17

rebuild it

9:18

tell the refugees who are still in the

9:20

camp

9:21

no one will build your house when you

9:25

are hand with a miles away people must

9:30

be courageous to return home we build

9:32

their lives and their homes it was an

9:37

amazing experience an emotional

9:39

experience in my entire life to see

9:41

people like fatimata

9:42

and many other refugees returned home

9:45

and being able to build their life from

9:49

where they left it when they were

9:50

fleeing

9:51

I took my lessons with me that had

9:57

learned in West Africa to King as the

9:59

Dahl refugee camp in 2010 Dadaab

10:03

has housed hundreds and thousands of

10:07

mainly Smyly refugees for more than 25

10:09

years my time ended up where we have put

10:14

up new comes well design comes even

10:18

better structures ice taught me that

10:22

change is possible so when I came here

10:30

to Kakuma in 2015 to help develop a

10:37

complete new approach of helping

10:42

refugees to the way that we know we do

10:44

business as usual I was ready for the

10:48

challenge

10:49

the idea was to go beyond a camp to

10:55

build a settlement over two decades of

10:59

my experience has taught me that

11:02

refugees are ready for change and the

11:05

communities

11:06

hosting them to are ready for change so

11:11

time has come for we humanitarians to

11:17

change the way we do business so we

11:26

begin to plan this dream community to

11:28

come a reality

11:29

Takuma is not a new come has existed for

11:33

more than 25 years and now is a large

11:36

come home to 185 thousand refugees from

11:39

19 countries from the very beginning

11:44

refugees were arriving in this place the

11:46

Taconic community and the refugees have

11:47

lived side by side they have benefited

11:51

and learn from one another on any given

11:54

day you go to kar komak um you see

11:56

vibrant markets I believe most of you

11:58

may have gone there before where the

12:00

tukana

12:01

and the refugees shop side by side

12:05

informally these two communities have

12:07

been interacting for years so with the

12:10

war breaking our again in South Sudan in

12:13

2013 which created another mass influx

12:16

of refugees arriving in Kakuma rather

12:18

than looking at the refugees as another

12:21

burden we stopped and thought what if

12:24

this could be an opportunity so we

12:27

design what is today called Talib a we

12:33

began with the concept of communities

12:35

from the very beginning

12:37

putting the welfare of the refugees and

12:41

there to kind of host at consideration

12:45

we began planning caliber and caliber is

12:52

not a camp this time there will be no

12:54

camp at all that means building schools

12:59

building hospitals building the public

13:05

transport system that there will stand

13:07

the test of time Holloway will be a

13:12

place for growth training for Refugees

13:16

and the host community

13:18

key to the plan is mapping roads parks

13:22

West management system there will be fit

13:24

for purpose for future urban community

13:27

most Duchannes naturally are not a

13:30

bandwidth

13:31

they are pastoralists to whom livestock

13:36

is essential the refugees are kin

13:41

farmers and traders bringing both

13:44

together is ideally the best of both

13:48

worlds but the success of Calabi is a

13:53

collective responsibility and goes

13:55

beyond the refugees in the host

13:57

community humanitarians government

14:01

officials development agencies of course

14:05

donors in the private sector locally

14:09

beyond what we used to do the usual

14:15

refugee camp but to a place people could

14:20

actually come from and this idea or

14:22

building urban center not come in my

14:28

opinion it is a game changer so we began

14:36

planning and designing the settlement

14:39

and we reach out to the refugees and the

14:43

host community to ask them what they

14:45

need it and how they want it done this

14:50

is Carla Bay today it is not perfect but

14:58

it is progress in the making I believe

15:02

Cala Bay is a model that could be

15:06

replicated in other countries in Africa

15:09

even globally one way we just don't talk

15:15

about giving refugees dignity but

15:19

involving refugees from the very

15:21

beginning when we are planning their

15:24

welfare it is something that we all need

15:27

to embrace and work together and by the

15:29

way I'm pleased that the new

15:32

Global Compact on refugees which is

15:35

about to be adopted by UN member states

15:39

will make actually Callaway design

15:41

Universal in times when global

15:49

displacement is larger than ever before

15:52

where conflicts do not seems to be

15:55

ending soon innovations and change is

15:59

the only way to go if we humanitarians

16:06

and by the way I am also one of them if

16:11

we change our mindset from the

16:16

perception that refugees are just

16:17

passive recipients of aid the people who

16:21

could actually work and support

16:23

themselves let us commit to not just

16:31

give refugees basic survival let us

16:34

commit to giving them dignity

16:36

self-determination an opportunity to be

16:41

part of and contribute to the community

16:43

they live in today it is not just the

16:46

right way or the smart way of doing

16:48

things I believe it is the only way to

16:53

truly transform the lives of refugees to

16:56

make the world we all live in a better

17:01

place for future generations thank you

17:05

very much

17:08

you

English (auto-generated)

Henok Ochalla

Head of Field Office at UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency

Kibondo, Kigoma Region, Tanzania  

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