Tuesday, 02 August 2011

Unizulu students on refugee aid mission

Unizulu Hydrology students Siphesihle Bukhosini, Nompumelelo Mandlazi, Sindiswa Zuma, Mfanelo Ntombela and lecturer Jean Simonis are part of the university’s relief team that left for a refugee camp in eastern Kenya on Saturday

This weekend a team of University of Zululand hydrology honours students left for drought-stricken Somalia to undertake a refugee aid initiative. Thousands of refugees are arriving in Ethiopia and Kenya daily. The students will put their water skills at the disposal of the agencies handling the recently declared international disaster in two southern regions of Somalia. Eleven million people in east Africa are currently facing shortages of food and water following the region’s worst drought in 60 years. Heading the Unizulu team is hydrology lecturer, Siphesihle Bukhosini and experienced disaster relief agent, Jean Simonis. They will be accompanied by a medical doctor from Ngwelezana Hospital and a Unizulu nursing science student. ‘We will head for the eastern Kenyan desert where there are already about half a million refugees in a camp just inside the border. ‘Some 1 200 to 1 500 people are arriving there daily - and dying,’ said Simonis, who has previously worked in disaster areas in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. The Unizulu team will offer its medical and water and sanitation skills, work out where to drill boreholes and, if necessary, guide the drilling process. Other South African aid agencies, such as Gift of the Giver, are busy assembling truckloads of supplies for shipping north, but the Unizulu team will be travelling light so as to travel quickly. They will fly into Nairobi with basic supplies - chlorine tablets, camping equipment and personal clothing - then head to the camp by road. This is the first time since 1984 that the UN has alerted the world to a famine and asked governments to help. ‘No African countries are yet officially involved in the relief effort, but between us in the Unizulu Hydrology Department we have the necessary expertise and experience, and can get there fast,’ says Simonis.