“My Volunteer Experience In The North-East” – Adeoluwa Ojajuni Talks About His Experience Working In IDP Camps

It all started on Twitter. Sometime late last year I stumbled on a tweet by a lady(@moeodele) who runs an NGO that collects gifts and other items for IDPs in different camps, she tweeted about the dire need for doctors and medical personnel to assist with medical services in the camps. I was serving then, in a small town in Osun state, there and then I decided to go help for short while when I was through with NYSC. I contacted the lady and asked her how I could help. It took a while and several calls to her before she was finally able to link me up with a camp official in Yola Adamawa state. So I started saving up and preparing for the trip. I also did some research on the place as I had never travelled up North before.

After service I contacted the officials in the camp and they gladly told me I was welcome. I packed my bags and was set, but one more thing, I hadn’t told my parents yet. It was really difficult convincing my mother about the idea (as expected), she finally agreed although grudgingly. It took about 26 hrs straight by road from Lagos to Yola( I had to manage my money) the journey wasnt quite as stressful as I feared. On getting there I was quickly settled in, luckily I was accommodated in a hotel. I met with another volunteer doctor who is from Adamawa. He had been the only doctor working in all the camps for months prior to my arrival, he actually set up some of the camp clinics on his own, sourcing for drugs and equipments, he told me how he had to spend his own money severally. I was amazed at his selflessness and sacrifice, he was really glad I was there to help.

I immediately got down to work after being introduced around. I would give a brief description of how the camps work. There are several IDP camps located within Yola and its outskirts (about a dozen or so). The main ones which house a larger percentage of the IDP population are run officially by both the federal and state governments through NEMA & SEMA. They are responsible for daily running of the camps and provide everything from shelter, food, security, clothing, healthcare to maintenance of hygiene and sanitation. One of the largest camps-the NYSC camp had about 5000 persons resident there. Other camps had between 1000 and 3000 IDPs. The other smaller camps are run by churches, NGOs, philanthropists although the government still oversees and assists them. It takes a whole lot financially to run all these camps and the government is really spending a lot to maintain them, feeding alone costs a lot. Apart from the government, a number of NGOs both local and international, religious bodies, philanthropists contribute to various aspects of the welfare in the camps by helping to build tents and toilets, distribute food and non-food items, sink bore holes, supply drugs and vaccines. But as expected there is still a great deal more that can be done to ensure these people have some comfort and lead fairly decent lives even in the camps.

By the time I resumed there, the camps had been open for about 6-7 months that means some babies that were born in the camps had started crawling!. The camp clinics where I worked were initially mostly makeshift clinics, most of them were classrooms or halls that were converted, they lacked basic equipments, usables and drugs. Fortunately as time went on, with the help of some government agencies and NGOs basic equipments, drugs and vaccines were made available. It began to take the look of a more functional clinic by the day. The clinics were mostly staffed by trained CHEWs although there were a few nurses. There were no other doctors on ground apart from both of us, so we had to rotate through the different camps based on a schedule or wherever we were needed most. It was quite impressive what we were able to achieve with the limited resources available. I had to improvise as much as possible, as everytime I asked for a particular drug or instrument it wasn’t available. The clinic was able to carry out immunization and nutrition programmes, diagnose and treat a wide range of illnesses, contain outbreaks of diseases like measles,chickenpox. We also took safe deliveries and performed minor surgical/gynaecological procedures amongst other things. We had to refer complicated cases to the bigger hospitals in town, although the process was sometimes cumbersome and frustrating as sometimes government doctors were on strike, at other times funds were not readily available. Sometimes it took days to finally refer critical patients, luckily we always somehow found a way to keep most of them alive till then. Sadly we lost a few too. Several times we had to tax ourselves to buy some drugs or usables that were not available. I was able to pass on some very good and important clinical knowledge/skills to the staffs that worked with me.

I must mention here a couple of things that really struck me during my time there. First, was the resilience of the human spirit. A lot of these IDPs have gone through enough trauma and suffering to last several lifetimes and yet they still continue living with hope. I was told several sad stories, people who had their family members killed, kidnapped or missing. Some had all their entire belongings burnt and destroyed-houses, bikes, farms, shops. A lot of them had to trek for several days and weeks to get to safety, they usually arrived the camps with swollen legs, looking half-dead and very sick, some with bullet and shrapnel injures, broken bones and severe injuries. Some mothers had lost children, husbands had lost wives, several children had lost parents too. On different occasions I saw women who were breastfeeding babies that were not theirs because the mothers were either dead or missing. One particular afternoon, the soldiers brought in a young girl about 14 or 15 who was just rescued from her BH captor who had kidnapped and ‘married’ her. While attending to her she pleaded that I test her to know if she was pregnant and that if she was I should help terminate it. She was. I almost cried.

Another thing that was noteworthy was the administrative management of the camps. The cooperation between the official government bodies running the camps and other collaborators (various NGOs) was laudable, every party was doing their best to contribute their own quota towards the smooth running of the camps based on defined roles and objectives. It showed me a perfect example of how public-private partnership could succeed. Government alone cannot solve all the problems.

There were lots of other young volunteers in these camps too, assisting in various aspects of the camp. There were corpers who were volunteering as teachers in d camp schools, some as barbers, some taught entrepreneurial skills, some as camp officials, there were volunteers from the Red Cross, Boys brigade and several other religious and non-religious organizations helping in various ways. Many of them were not paid a kobo and worked really hard. I was truly inspired by them.

One more striking thing was the peaceful interreligious co-existence. The camps had designated places for churches as well as muslim praying grounds. There were no religious frictions. It was like they all knew BokoHaram was the common enemy so they had to unite against it.

For me, it was a truly amazing experience. I was able to learn lots of new things, I saw some disease conditions I had never seen before, only read about them in books, I also learnt some very important cultural lessons e.g. not everyone from the North is Hausa (a lot of southerners don’t know this!), I met some really amazing people and struck great friendships, I was able to learn a little Hausa too. One thing I endured there was the terribly hot weather (it was always so hot, evening temperatures were up to 42C most times). At the end of my stay there, on my way back, I was happy I was able to make a difference in my own little way. I will always be proud of that.

I really do hope volunteering to help others befallen by adverse situations both within our borders and beyond become a viral idea and more than that a culture we imbibe . Thanks for reading.

 

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