When one too many bundles of joy are a headache

By John OywaChildren’s rights activists are alarmed at the high number of children suffering at the Dadaab refugee camps and want Somali women to urgently adopt birth control measures.
With their country hit by a double tragedy of war and drought, humanitarian experts now say the high birth rate among Somali women has compounded the crisis at refugee camps in northern Kenya.
International aid workers said the refugees continue to give birth at an alarming rate, exposing themselves and their infant to fatal post-natal ailments.

Many of the infants die during the long and traumatising journey to the camps in Dadaab. [PHOTOS: BONIFACE ONGERI/STANDARD]

Many of the infants die during the long and traumatising journey to the camps in Dadaab. Others succumb to severe malnutrition on arrival at the overcrowded camps.
"The tragedy is that every woman fleeing to Kenya from Somalia is either pregnant or has an infant. They continue to conceive more babies here despite the harsh conditions they face," said Mark Ochoki, a relief worker.
He added: "Something should be done. Besides waiting for them to arrive in Kenya, NGOs should get into Somalia and encourage these people to plan their families. A high birth rate in a lawless country is disastrous."
Teeming with children
A visit to Dadaab refugee camp confirms Mr Ochoki’s fears. Almost half of the refugees in and outside the three camps are malnourished children and their mothers.
A hospital run by Medecins sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders) at Dagahaley in Dadaab is teeming with sick children.
Hospital staff has reported a high death rate because most of the children are brought to the hospital in serious conditions.
By last week, 20 children had died within one month.
"We are burying an average of five children every week. One family has buried four of their children since they arrived here in June. It is pathetic," said a refugee, Mohammed Hitzak.
At the refugee registration centres located in Ifo, Hagadera, and Dagahaley, more than 90 per cent of women seeking asylum are either pregnant or have babies strapped on their backs.
It is the site of these suffering children that has attracted international donors to Dadaab.
Humanitarian organisations such as Medecins sans Frontiers and the Save the Children – UK are spending huge resources catering for the welfare of the children in Dadaab. The MSF has set up a 170-bed hospital in Dagahalay and five health outreach posts in the refugee camps to treat sick children.
The hospital continued to admit children suffering from severe malnutrition. Other organisations working with children in Dadaab include Save the Children UK, International Rescue Committee and German Technical Co-operation.
Currently, there are 380,000 refugees in the three camps in Dadaab, 40 per cent of who are children. The MSF Research Co-ordinator Caroline Abu-Sada told reporters in Dadaab last week that out of the 122,000 refugees registered at the Dagahaley, between 30-35 per cent were children below five years. The MSF hospital handled about 400 deliveries by Somali women in the maternity ward in the past two months – double what it was a year ago.
"At any given time we have between 40 and 50 severely malnourished children with medical complications in the inpatient feeding centre, and many more children with malnutrition receiving outpatient care," said a source at the hospital.
Reproductive health is a major problem in Somalia, with a maternal mortality ratio of 1,044 per 100,000 live births placing Somali women among the most high-risk groups in the world. Haemorrhage, prolonged and obstructed labour, infections, and eclampsia (complications that occur in late pregnancy) are the major causes of death at childbirth in Somalia. The country, with a population of about 10 million people, has been at war since the ouster of President Siad Barre in 1991.
Its population growth rate is estimated at 2.8 per cent, compared to Kenya’s 2.5 per cent and is ranked 16th in the world. It has a birth rate of 43.3 per cent, compared to Kenya’s 35 per cent one point below a life expectancy rate of 48 years for men and 51 years for women according the World Fact Book.
Somalia has one of the highest infant mortality rates of 107.42 deaths per every 1000 live births. Kenya’s national infant mortality rate stands at 53.49 percent.
A report by The UNHCR says majority of Somali infants living in the refugee camps were never breastfed, making them vulnerable to diseases.
The report says the frequent birth by Somali women and cultural beliefs had exposed children to suffering.