Daily rhythms in a camp for displaced people
Hasansham U3 and Khazir M1 are just two of the 17 camps and emergency sites hosting vulnerable families fleeing the conflict in Mosul. Almost six months after the beginning of military operations, Hasansham U3 is home to nearly 11,000 people and Khazir M1 around 42,000 people, the size of a small village.
As the crisis in west Mosul deepens, there has been a more sizeable outflow of people than previously seen over the course of military operations to retake areas of Iraq held by ISIL. Since operations in west Mosul began in late February, over 100,000 people have fled the city.
A group of UNICEF staff and Danish journalists visited Khazer and Hasansham camps to speak with camp residents about dealing with protracted displacement.
Despite the constant movement of people, including a few new arrivals from west Mosul and people from east Mosul returning home, life in the camps seems to have developed a daily rhythm.
Families live close by each other, and take turns stopping by their neighbors tents to share a hot drink and have a chat. New acquaintances have been formed, often by people who have forged the bonds of friendship through the shared experience of flight from their hometowns.
As we visited one man and his family, a neighbor stopped by. During the course of our conversation, the two men would occasionally corroborate each other’s story of flight, having met on the road to the camp and then been situated in tents close to each other.
And in a reflection of life outside the camp, shops and stands are popping up to provide goods. Um Talib’s “shop” consists of a tarp, a few crates used to form a shelf, a stool to sit on, and some grandchildren loitering around for company.
Originally from Erbil but displaced after moving to Mosul, living with her son and his family. “In Mosul, my son sold cigarettes. He was punished by ISIL many times. Now, we have no financial resources so that’s why I’ve started this shop to bring in some money.”
She sells snacks and a few basic necessities like eggs to camp residents. As she speaks with us, one of her granddaughters pilfers a bar of chocolate, hoping her grandmother is sufficiently distracted with us not to notice. It worked.
Just up the road, in UNICEF supported child-friendly spaces, a class of 5 year olds are learning their numbers in one of the brightly decorated tents. These spaces provide psychosocial support to children, as well as a place to receive supplementary education. Volunteers from UNICEF’s partner Terre de Hommes are busy registering children, teaching, and generally trying to bring order to the chaos of space occupied by energetic children. Other children are lined up at the gate, waiting to come in for their shift.
Several boys with well-used wheelbarrows in primary colors passed us on their way to a distribution of water, food and hygiene kits; part of the emergency Rapid Response Mechanism to distribute basic supplies to newly displaced families provided by a range of agencies including UNICEF.
These essential items are distributed in part, with the generous support of ECHO and the US Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance.
Despite developing coping mechanisms such as adapting clothes to be diapers, and and daily routines, camp residents are still facing severe challenges; chief among them is earning an income to facilitate moving home or even buying basic necessities for their families.
People actively resist normalizing their situations in the camp. They are looking for ways to return home at the earliest opportunity, though their homes and jobs may no longer exist. The crisis has affected all strata of society; over the course of my walk, we have met shepherds and people from families who owned considerable industrial holdings.
And while nearly all camp residents we spoke to hope to return to their homes, for many, that is not yet possible. The aid they receive in the camps is more than they would be able to provide for their families should they try to return home without the security of a job.
So for now, Um Talib will continue to sit at her stand. Children will continue to fly their kites and chase each other through rows of tents and around water tanks. Men and women will walk, talk and take care of their families, remembering home and planning for a life outside the camps.
Jennifer Sparks is a Communciations Consultant with UNICEF Iraq.
