First week in Dadaab

Hoa and I arrived in Nairobi about one week ago. We stayed for two days in Nairobi, where we went to the UNHCR Branch Office to complete paperwork and security briefing.

On Wednesday morning, we took the UNHCR charter flight to Dadaab, our duty station for the next ten weeks. The plane was a 12-seater, and we were joined by a USAID-World Food Programme joint mission, a young British guy working on development and technology issues, and other UNHCR staff.

The one hour flight took us over the desert-savannah of Eastern Kenya. We had amazing views of Mt. Kenya to the north and Mt. Kilimanjaro to the south.

I

I am working with the Resettlement Unit at UNHCR, where I am conducting first phase profiling of refugees for possible resettlement in the US, Canada, or Australia. Basically, this means I go out to the field office and then conduct about eight interviews each day. The interviews are akin to legal intake in the US context for an asylum seeker. During the interview I attempt to see whether or not the refugee matches the legal and project criteria for resettlement.

Hoa workes in community services unit. Her job is not completely defined yet, but it entails heading to the three camps comprising Dadaab, meeting the community to assess their needs, and then liaising with NGOs to respond to those needs. Hoa is the person in the straw hat and orange shirt in one of the above photos.