Dadaab 101 Facts by Data Techie.

Last week i travelled to the world's largest refugee camp called Dadaab, a semi-arid town in the north eastern province in Kenya. Apparently my goal was just to understand how Somali refugees interact with technology. I love being in tough areas and Dadaab refugee camp is one of those tough areas in the world, one thing to be careful about is insecurity in the area especially the Dadaab Ifo camps. I travelled to all the camps with the help of @KRCS and met so many refugees whom i chatted with to get these facts.

Above: MariaSole and Ngamita at Red Cross Dadaab compound..

Fact 1: Internet usage is not a rare thing to 18-30 year olds as i had thought earlier. Only the elders above 35 may not know how to use internet.

Fact 2: The Food markets have anything you want ranging from potatoes, rice, cooking oil, mangoes,guavas etc

Fact 3: Almost all young somalis in Dadaab 18-35 are on the Nimbuzz  mobile messaging and chat app platform.
Fact 4: There are approx. over 464k refugees in Dadaab as of April 2013, 279k (60%) are children and youth (source: @unhcrinnovation)

Fact 5: Dadaab camps are organised into sections, then blocks, then tents and are well demarcated with signs.

Fact 6: Here are 6 camps namely (Ifo, Ifo 2 East, Ifo 2 West, Dagahaley, Hagadera and Kambioos) - didn’t manage to access Kambioos.

Fact 7: Hagadera seemed the most organised camp, with booming businesses, more secure/peaceful and organised internet cafe run by guys from dadabcamps team  supported by DRC

Fact 8: Refugees are mainly from Somalia (95.8%), Ethiopia (3.9%) and also South Sudan (.2%) source: UNHCR

Fact 9: Safaricom is widely used by almost every user for calls and data, Orange is the next substitute for data when Safaricom goes down.

Fact 10: Nokia is the biggest phone brand in the camps among the youth, with a few samsung, Huawei are noticed from most users i interacted with. The Nokia X2 and 2730 series seems most common.

Fact 11: Youth (15 - 30 ) support the elders in tech e.g internet usage, phone usage, checking sms etc

Fact 12: Somali love News, main sources of News are somali websites, BBC somali radio, local radio stations

Fact 13: Most Somalis speak more than 2 languages in the order of Somali (all versions + bantu), English(fair) and Swahili (comes as last).

Fact 14: Insecurity is a big challenge and so unpredictable. Anything can happen at anytime. Most dangerous place seems to be the Ifo camps.

Fact 15: Business is thriving in Dadaab mostly noticed this in the camps of Hagadera and Dagahaley. Imported commodities from middle east, China.

Fact 16: Electricity is a rare commodity and seems quite expensive for even small activities like charging a phone goes at 20 Ksh (approx. USD 0.24$)

Fact 17: Transport is a challenge, roads are so bad and worst in rainy seasons. Car hire for a day goes for over 100$ USD, Security at 700 Ksh (USD 8.31 $) per extra Police officer you hire.

Fact 18: Somali camp elders can make or break activities. They play a big part in recruitments, construction, development decisions. You must include them in everything, i mean everything.

Fact 19: Food rationing happens 2 times a month to camps, UNHCR working on biometrics database for all refugees.

Fact 20: Only 1 Bank in Dadaab (Equity bank) impossible to ever find the ATM working.  Mpesa outlets are noticed in every small centre, this  is the main money exchange platform, almost everyone talked to got an Mpesa account.

Fact 21: Don’t ever give a Somali woman a handshake (It’s not acceptable) and for ladies never wear anything short that reveals skin :).

Fact 22: Internet cafe’s run on 3g Safaricom modems and Orange 3g as back up. Costs between 1 (USD 0.02$) Ksh to 2 Ksh (USD 0.02$) per min for users and running 1-5 computers per cafe.

Fact 23: Gaming centers are common with game pads connected to televisions and many youth playing at a cost.