Diana works in Dadaab Refugee Camp, Kenya, as a Best Interest Determination Determination (BID) and Child Protection Officer for Save the Children. Established by the Kenyan government in 1991 as a temporary haven for 90,000 people fleeing the fighting in neighbouring Somalia, Dadaab is now home to more than 330,000 refugees, many of whom have been there since the camp opened.
Diana describes the importance of Gender, Age and Disability in her work in Dadaab:
“Working with children, they come with a lot of issues surrounding them. We are working with children who are boys or girls, and we are working with caregivers who are male or female. Some caregivers are elderly and have disabilities.
We do a lot of sensitization and awareness on the rights of children, making the community aware of the policy of ‘do no harm’ and everything that comes with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
We conduct Best Interest Determination (BID) whereby we help make important decisions for children. Through BID, we get to interact with not only the child but the caregiver, the neighbour, the block leader and any other person within the network of the child. These are the people who could have different vulnerabilities.”
RedR’s training, supported by XL Catlin, helps participants to recognise the barriers faced by people of different genders, older people and people with disabilities. It analyses how discrimination and violence manifests in emergency situations against different groups and gives humanitarian workers the necessary skills to help change discriminatory attitudes and actions.