Growing in a refugee camp in Mauritania with a dream of saving lives
A young Malian refugee whose family has survived on humanitarian aid including cash transfers from WFP, tells of his dream to be a doctor
By Miho Mitobe
On a sunny morning in June, Moctar ag Elhadj, heads for school in Mbera refugee camp in the southeast of Mauritania. Along with four of his classmates, he is in a hurry to avoid being late for the start of the maths lesson. His parents have told him it is an important subject if he must achieve his dream of being a medical doctor.
“I like my math class the best…I want to be a doctor to help people like my mother,” says the 12-year-old Moctar. His mother, who works in a health centre in the camp, and his father, who is a teacher, fled armed violence in their homeland Mali when Moctar was only one year old. “Seeing how my mother helps people is the reason why I have this dream of becoming a doctor.”
More than 65,000 Malian refugees live in the Mbera camp, as over a decade of insecurity and conflict continues to rock Mali, spreading across the Central Sahel region of West Africa. For many children, like Moctar, home is synonymous to the refugee camp. Humanitarian aid is key to their survival.
“I would hear my parents talking about distributions and they will go to receive food and now money, but I had no idea why it was important,” says Moctar. “Now I understand. We go to the camp market with my mother to do our shopping. We don’t buy too many items because the money is limited to the essential stuff, as my mum would say.”
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) supports refugees each month with food assistance as well as a specialised nutritional food and school meals through contributions from the United States, the European Commission (ECHO), Japan, France, Canada, the United Kingdom (UK), Germany and Saudi Arabia.
The UK contribution strengthens WFP’s ability to provide cash transfers to families in the camps and to analyse the market dynamics to ensure that, though vulnerable, the people being served can access affordable and nutritious food of their choice, while ensuring a local economy thrives within the camp to improve livelihoods.
“I don’t remember getting really sick. I think this is also because we can eat morning, afternoon and evening,” says Moctar with a smile
While refugees can meet their basic needs in the camp through the support of aid groups and their donor partners, they would rather be in their homeland.
“My parents would often talk about their life in Mali,” says Moctar. “They would often tell me about how they had escaped Mali — about the feelings of fear and dismay they had felt leaving their home and the feeling of relief that had crossed their souls when they found refuge here in Mbera.”
It is the determination to assuage the pain and sadness that he sometimes sees in his parents that also drives this pre-teenager to focus so hard on his studies. “Refugee is just a status. It does not mean that we are helpless people. We can be independent and help others,” says says Moctar, who is enrolled in the 7th grade.
