25 August 2004

Bonn, Germany: Axel Melinon of France knows the media-labeled Darfur crisis all too well. As one of 23 UN Volunteers currently on the ground in Chad, he spends his days caring for some 15,000 Sudanese refugees that refer to Bahai, a small desert outpost situated along the north-eastern Chad-Sudan border, as their temporary home.

Axel, 30, who arrived in Chad in May 2004 to work with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) as a refugee protection officer, was quickly sent to Bahai to set-up UNHCR’s office and coordinate the transition of the refugees. An estimated 200,000 Sudanese, mainly women and children, have crossed into Chad to escape the violence that has been underway in Sudan for the past 18 months. UNHCR, with the support of other UN agencies and international organizations, has established several refugee camps and transition sites close to the border to provide the refugees with shelter, food, and medical treatment.

Preparing the camps, however, has not been an easy task. Axel says he was overwhelmed with the amount of work needed to establish the basics in Bahai. “When I arrived, there was nothing,” he says. “The water well was completely dry and we weren’t even sure where to locate water.” Within a matter of days, he, along with the assistance of a few local and international staff from the International Refugee Committee (IRC) and World Vision, located water and focused their attention on preparing for the transition of the refugees.

Working with limited means, the small relief team managed to set-up the site and move the 15,000 refugees within a period of two months. During this time, he says a new obstacle appeared every day.
“The biggest challenge was coordinating the move at the start of the rainy season,” he says. “The wadis – seasonal riverbeds – basically made it impossible for us to move the refugees. The rains flooded much of the areas where the refugees were living. We were in constant battle with the weather.”

Now with the refugees in the camp, he and the relief team face new obstacles. “We have never a dull moment,” he says. “Security is definitely an issue. We have a lot of young boys (refugees) here, so it is always in the back of your mind that the rebels may come into the camp to recruit them by force.”

Besides security, his immediate concern is the health of the refugees. He estimates 20 per cent of the camp’s children are malnourished and the threat of a cholera outbreak is ever present. To address malnutrition, feeding centres have been established and medicine is constantly being distributed, but getting to all of the refugees requires efficient coordination and the involvement of refugee-volunteers. Despite their help with handing out food rations and blankets, he says more outside assistance is needed, especially with more refugees arriving everyday. He estimates the site’s population could reach 20,000 in the coming weeks.

Some 300 kilometres southwest of Bahai in the regional hub of Abéché, UN Volunteer Pauline Fresneau works day and night to ensure that camps like Bahai get the essentials they need..

Responsible for air operations, the 29-year-old French national coordinates the arrival and departure of aircraft and trucks carrying food, medical kits, generators, water purifiers and other items for refugees and field workers. She also manages the scheduling of small passenger planes bringing humanitarian aid workers to and from the field, as well as emergency flights for evacuations.

Once goods and equipment have arrived at the airport, she and three other logistics staff, prepare for distribution. Depending on the camp’s distance from the airport and weather conditions at the time, she organizes for truck convoys or smaller aircraft to deliver the goods. She says a 30-minute delay at any point of the operation could spell trouble for those in the field. “You have to stay cool all the time,” she explains. “The needs are enormous and no one in the field, especially the refugees, want to hear about logistics delays being responsible for no food or medical supplies arriving.”

She says her day, which can start as early as 3 am and end some 17 hours later, is filled with the necessity to make instant decisions. Her stress level is always at the maximum, as she knows tens of thousands of people are relying on her to make the right decision.

Kevin Gilroy, Chief of Special Operations at UNV headquarters in Bonn, says the ability of people like Pauline and Axel to stay focused during such missions is telling of their character and commitment to help others. “The women and men we attract to serve as UN Volunteers in such extreme crisis situations, such as that ongoing in Darfur, are a very special breed of people,” he says. “They see the awful situations on television and then take a personal decision to get involved and be right in the middle of the crisis.”

He adds many UN Volunteers are willing to go through extreme discomfort and hardship just to deliver a moment of peace or comfort to others. “What keeps many of them going is the solidarity with the victims: to see that the results of one's efforts and those of the organization they work for make even the slightest difference,” he says.

For UNHCR, the contributions of UN Volunteers do not go unnoticed. “The operation (Bahai site transfer) required a high level of management and coordination skills to be demonstrated, as little time was available to prepare the new camp and make arrangements for the transfers,” says Geoffrey Wordley, a Senior Emergency Officer with UNHCR’s headquarters in Geneva. “Axel achieved all of this remarkably well. We are very lucky indeed to have people like him working with us.”
With the latest news reports pointing to no clear resolution to the Darfur crisis in sight, both Axel and Pauline say they will stay in Chad as long as they are mentally and physically able to.

In the coming weeks, Pauline expects to move into the field to supervise the logistics of supplies at the camp level, while Axel will remain at Bahai to start the job he was first sent to do – to work with the refugees on rights and protection issues.