Ivory Coast: When the rain comes

It’s been a long day of work and I’m finally home. As I sit outside, the pitch black sky is lit up by a distant lightning, revealing the silhouette of the belt of mountains that surrounds Man — the town I’m living in now, in western Ivory Coast.

There is no thunder, just lightning, and as soon as it’s gone the sky returns to darkness. Normally, I would have just enjoyed the beauty of this moment, but this time it’s different.

I know that later tonight, when the rain catches up with the lightning, there will be children and families unable to sleep because they have no shelter.

Lives uprooted

Hundreds of thousands of families were forced to flee their homes in the Ivory Coast after the disputed elections in November sparked a major crisis. Now almost six months after the elections, children are still suffering the devastating consequences.

Their homes have been burnt down, their schools destroyed, hospitals looted, and family members killed.

Right now, 150,000 people are still displaced in the west of the country alone. Thousands of children are without a home, some staying with host families who don’t have the resources to support everyone.

Atrocious conditions

Others are living in overcrowded camps, struggling to find a free space to lay their heads at night, which, for many, still means sleeping under the stars.

Today, I visited one of the camps where about 25,000 people are crowded together on the grounds of a local church.

The conditions are atrocious. Apart from the need for adequate shelter, there is also a massive shortage of food, clean water, mosquito nets and medical supplies.

Malnutrition

As I walked through the busy and narrow alleys of the camp, I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of children – they were everywhere.

Many of them had thin arms and swollen bellies, typically symptoms of malnutrition and stomach diseases. Some of them would not stop crying.

The amount of need was palpable at the camp and I was glad that we were there to take action. While my colleagues worked flat out to provide for some of the basic needs of these children, I worked to protect children from abuse, violence and exploitation.

A place to learn, play

Despite the disheartening conditions I had witnessed on my visit, I left the camp with a sense of accomplishment. I managed to successfully negotiate for a free space to set up a temporary school and a supervised playground.

There, children will have an opportunity to learn, play, express themselves and have fun together. In the midst of their daily struggles in the camp, children will have a space to leave their hardships aside and just be children. 

The rains come

Following a sudden brisk wind and a marked temperature drop, the rain has now arrived to Man, heavy and merciless. 

I get myself ready for bed and, knowing that this is only the beginning of the rainy season, I can’t stop thinking of the needs of families spending the night outdoors.

This post was written by Marie Dahl, an Emergency Programme Coordinator with Save the Children Denmark.