Caring for eachother

We are in a refugee camp. There are no paid jobs, there is limited amounts of food, there is no electricity, but there is love and care.

A few weeks ago Maria and I visited Dajla. It is one of the refugee camps and it is situated far away from all the other camps. Dajla is unique not only due to its location, which is in the middle of the sand dunes, but also because the people living there are more isolated than the people in the other refugee camps. The life in Dajla is more calm. People have more time for each other and taking care of each other is their main priority. There is no paid work in Dajla, but the organizations there are some of the best run organizations I have seen. There are several schools were women learn how to make carpets, clothes, bags, scarfs and artifacts that they can sell on the market. These schools also give the women the possibility to learn languages such as Spanish, French and English, learn how to use a computer and how to use cameras and develop the pictures. These type of initiatives might seem small, but they make a huge difference to many of the women. The fact that the woman is not dependent on the man is very important also here. Money is power in many ways...

These women do not only care for themselves and their family, but also for the whole population of Dajla. Some of the women are now making 7000 school uniforms for the children of the camp. All of this without getting paid for it. It seems as if the humanitarian aid between the people in the camps is stronger than the humanitarian aid that the Saharawis receive from other countries and NGOs.

In Dajla we also visited a school for handicaped. This school has hardly any resources or material, but it is a place where they can learn to do something and to socialise. The school’s main goals are to give everyone an education, to integrate them into the society and to teach them how to live as independently as possible. It is wonderful that such initiatives and schools exist here and it is amazing that they seem to work more effectively than many such initiatives in our country.