WUNRN
Women's Refugee Commission
By Jina Krause-Vilmar, Senior Program Office, July 9,
2010
Food is
scarce in
In the
isolated eastern corner of
Most
host countries do not grant refugees the right to work, and
As a result, refugees are pushed into working in the informal economy where the risk of exploitation and abuse is far greater—particularly for women and girls.
In
camps like Aw Barre and Sheder, which are far from local markets, families
often send their daughters to work as live-in domestic servants. This is
dangerous work for the girls, as they have no protection from their families or
the law.
But
parents have no choice. I met Hadifa in the Aw Barre camp. She is a widow who
is struggling to survive and support her family in the camp. She told me she
felt she had no other option than to send both of her daughters to Jijiga, the
largest nearby town, to work as domestic servants. The teenage girls live with
the families they serve. They return to Aw Barre once a week to give Hadifa
their wages and collect their rations from the Ethiopian Administration for
Refugee/Returnee Affairs with support from United Nations agencies. Both the
girls have complained to their mother that they are routinely exposed to sexual
harassment and verbal abuse from their employers. As Hadifa told me this, she
asked with a resigned shrug of her shoulders, “What else can we do?”
Fortunately,
some refugees are learning to work safely in the informal economy. In Sheder
camp, about one and a half hours away from Jijiga, I sat on the dried mud floor
of Khadija’s makeshift home, constructed from scraps of corrugated tin and
plywood. Khadija is a self-proclaimed businesswoman who lives with her
sister and her sister’s six children. When I spoke with Khadija, she was
self-assured and determined as she told me about the expansion of her
business. She sells vegetables and meat to about 25 households and shares
the cost of the round- trip ride to Jijiga with five other business-minded
women. Together they purchase goods, which they then resell within the camp.
Currently Khadija is able to cover about 50% of her household needs with the
money she earns, and her income is likely to grow. She recently learned
that an international nonprofit organization was providing microloans for
start-ups, and she jumped at the opportunity to expand her business.
Unfortunately,
Khadija’s experience is not the norm. Too many families face the same stark
economic reality as Hadifa and her daughters. Given the inherent risks of
exploitation and abuse within the informal sector, livelihoods programs must
consider the many protection risks women face. To date, the international
community’s response has been slow in supporting safe, sustainable economic
activity in the informal economy. Market-driven and participatory livelihood
programs such as microfinance, enterprise development, and agrarian
interventions should be employed by leveraging the skills and potential found
in the informal sector. With the right resources and support, many more women
would have the chance to start innovative businesses like Khadija’s and take
their economic future into their own hands.
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