UMCOR Sierra Leone Archives

Liberian refugees in Tobanda camp, pictures from Sierra Leone

16 September 2003

The photo shows children who have been forced to flee their homes and are living in Tobanda camp, Sierra Leone.

Sporadic fighting continues in Liberia despite efforts to bring about a ceasefire and reintroduce some form of stability. Rebel factions control the areas of Liberia directly bordering Sierra Leone so that Liberian refugees trying to escape the violence have been unable to cross the border, which has been closed for the last 6 weeks. There are 50,000 Liberian refugees currently registered in Sierra Leone, a figure which would undoubtedly be higher if the border were open.

The Tobanda refugee camp in Sierra Leone (see photo left), run by LWF, currently houses over 7000 Liberian refugees and has the capacity for up to 10,000. When refugees arrive, they are assigned temporary accommodation for groups of approximately 80 people per 'booth'. They are allotted a plot of land on which they build their own accommodation from local materials provided by the camp management from UNHCR funds.

UMCOR Sierra Leone is currently implementing water and sanitation programs in Tobanda camp, as part of a UNICEF funded program. The staff (see photo right) is organized into specialised teams including a hygiene promotion team, whose job is to sensitise the refugees regarding hygiene matters and facilities, a construction team, responsible for building laundry slabs (see photo below left), latrines and more, a well construction team and a maintenance team, who ensure functioning drainage during the current rainy season.

Wells are hand dug to a depth of approximately 15 metres (see photo below right). The shaft is lined with cement, a hand pump is installed and the water is chlorinated. The wells provide clean, safe drinking water, which is vital during the rainy season when water-born diseases can spread quickly amongst the large numbers of already weakened refugees. The wells are intended to be utilized according to SPHERE guidelines, or in other words, 250 persons per well. In Tobanda this will mean almost 30 wells need to be constructed.

These measures will alleviate the situation for just some Liberian refugees. Liberia is a country stricken by poverty and war. Food prices have rocketed so that a dozen eggs cost the same in Liberia as in Vienna, an amount which many people in war torn Liberia cannot afford. Fighting continues so that access to areas outside of Monrovia is difficult and dangerous, making humanitarian assistance away from the capital virtually impossible.

UMCOR Sierra Leone and UMCOR Liberia are working on extending their programs both within Liberia and for Liberian refugees in Sierra Leone. UMCOR Sierra Leone is looking to extend its activities with the Tobanda camp and the surrounding host communities of Sierra Leoneans to include programs designed to train artisan skills for youth and improve adult literacy, assist in improving food self sufficiency with agriculture programs and an HIV/AIDS sensitisation program. As soon as the situation stabilises, UMCOR Liberia hopes to be involved in the reintegration process for the estimated 50,000 ex-combatants in Liberia. UMCOR Sierra Leone recently concluded a project for 471 ex-combatants in skills and training and literacy.