• Text size Normal size text | Increase text size by 10% | Increase text size by 20% | Increase text size by 30%

UNHCR project brings light, security and fuel-efficient cooking to refugees

News Stories, 26 January 2012

© UNHCR/S.Nambu
A solar-powered lantern is put to good use in a refugee camp in Bangladesh

GENEVA, January 26 (UNHCR) – A UNHCR programme to provide lighting and fuel-efficient stoves in African refugee camps has helped children with their studies and and improved safety for women and girls.

UNHCR launched the five-year Light Years Ahead campaign in January 2011, aiming to raise funds to improve the basic cooking and lighting needs of more than 450,000 refugees in seven African countries.

To date, the agency has raised US$1.4 million, enabling it to purchase and distribute some 200 solar-powered street lights, almost 15,000 lanterns and more than 8,000 fuel-efficient stoves in camps in Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, the Sudan and Uganda.

The installation of the street lamps and provision of lanterns and cooking stoves has not only improved the lives of refugees, it has also made their lives safer. The night can be dangerous for woman and girls living in camps that lack adequate lighting in communal areas.

The darkness can mean crime and violence go unseen and unchecked. Women and girls are especially at risk of attack and sexual assault when they walk to the latrines or washing areas. And with no source of light in the evenings, children are unable to do their homework. So they are more likely to drop out of school instead of building a platform for the future.

The fuel-efficient stoves also play a protection role, because their use means women and girls spend less time out foraging for wood. In isolated areas they are at risk of rape or assault while searching for firewood for their traditional stoves. The new stoves use 80 per cent less fuel.

There are also health benefits from using the less smoky stoves. And their use also can help reduce the competition for scarce firewood resources between refugees and the local community.

The technical innovations have been widely welcomed in the camps where they have been introduced. "Now I feel safe walking at night," said Fatuma, a 35-year-old Somali refugee in Jijiga camp, Ethiopia. She also enthused about the home lanterns because they featured a socket where the owner could recharge a mobile phone – vital for keeping in touch with family.

Faisal, a 15-year-old unaccompanied Somali child, has lived in eastern Ethiopia's Shedder refugee camp for more than two years. "The solar lantern means that we can study in the evenings after school," he said, adding: "I study for about two hours each evening and I am doing well in school."

Amina, a single mother with five children in Shedder, said the lanterns and stoves made her life much easier. "As the stove needs very little wood, I save four hours a day between wood collection and cooking time," she noted.

"With the solar lighting and fuel-efficient stoves distributed through this initiative, we are now seeing the positive impact on the lives of refugees," said Amare Gebre Egziabher, senior environmental coordinator at UNHCR.

• DONATE NOW • • GET INVOLVED • • STAY INFORMED •

 

Related stories by:

UNHCR country pages

Light Years Ahead: Innovative Technology for Refugee Protection

Environment

How UNHCR and partners seek to minimize the environmental impact of refugee operations.

Crisis in Horn of Africa

Tens of thousands of Somalis are fleeing conflict and drought into Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya.

A Time Between: Moving on from Internal Displacement in Uganda

This document examines the situation of IDPs in Acholiland in northern Uganda, through the stories of individuals who have lived through conflict and displacement.

Crisis in the Central African Republic

Little has been reported about the humanitarian crisis in the northern part of the Central African Republic (CAR), where at least 295,000 people have been forced out of their homes since mid-2005. An estimated 197,000 are internally displaced, while 98,000 have fled to Chad, Cameroon or Sudan. They are the victims of fighting between rebel groups and government forces.

Many of the internally displaced live in the bush close to their villages. They build shelters from hay, grow vegetables and even start bush schools for their children. But access to clean water and health care remains a huge problem. Many children suffer from diarrhoea and malaria but their parents are too scared to take them to hospitals or clinics for treatment.

Cattle herders in northern CAR are menaced by the zaraguina, bandits who kidnap children for ransom. The villagers must sell off their livestock to pay.

Posted on 21 February 2008

Crisis in the Central African Republic

Battling the Elements in Chad

More than 180,000 Sudanese refugees have fled violence in Sudan's Darfur region, crossing the border to the remote desert of eastern Chad.

It is one of the most inhospitable environments UNHCR has ever had to work in. Vast distances, extremely poor road conditions, scorching daytime temperatures, sandstorms, the scarcity of vegetation and firewood, and severe shortages of drinkable water have been major challenges since the beginning of the operation. Now, heavy seasonal rains are falling, cutting off the few usable roads, flooding areas where refugees had set up makeshift shelters, and delaying the delivery of relief supplies.

Despite the enormous environmental challenges, UNHCR has so far managed to establish nine camps and relocate the vast majority of the refugees who are willing to move from the volatile border.

Battling the Elements in Chad

Kenya Floods Threaten Refugees

Flood waters in north-eastern Kenya in mid-November, caused havoc in the Dadaab refugee complex of three camps. Over 100,000 of the 160,000 refugees have been badly affected by the flooding, particularly in Ifo camp. Refugees' homes were swept away and latrines have overflowed and collapsed. The main supply route linking Dadaab to the rest of Kenya has been cut by the rains, blocking all aid deliveries by road.

To get refugees to safety on higher ground, UNHCR started transferring people to Hagadera camp, 20kms away – often using donkey carts. A series of airlifts has brought in fuel for generators, emergency health kits, tarpaulins, and shovels to fill sandbags to keep the flood waters at bay. Essentials items such as plastic tarpaulins, sleeping mats, and food have been distributed to refugees who lost everything.

These floods have been compared to the massive flooding which followed the record 1997 El Nino rains that swamped much of low-lying eastern Kenya.

Posted on 29 November 2006

Kenya Floods Threaten Refugees

Ethiopia: Arriving in Assosa Play video

Ethiopia: Arriving in Assosa

Zeneib was living in her husband's village in Sudan's Blue Nile state when it was attacked. She lost three brothers and then endured tremendous hardship on the journey to Ethiopia with her children.
Sudan: A Perilous RoutePlay video

Sudan: A Perilous Route

Kassala camp in eastern Sudan provides shelter to thousands of refugees from Eritrea. Many of them pass through the hands of ruthless and dangerous smugglers.
Sudan: Heading for a New HomePlay video

Sudan: Heading for a New Home

UNHCR is offering to help move hundreds of people from Sudan to newly independent South Sudan, where they will build new lives. Almost 250 families with ties to the south are waiting for a ride.