People only flee their homes when it’s impossible to stay. This is as true of the survivors of the cyclone in Myanmar, as of the refugees who are forced from their homes by armed conflict or by drought in Africa. Without shelter, peoplehave no privacy and little chance of receiving essential services. So a makeshift tent from UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) offers more than just shelter to a refugee; it is also a sign of hope.

Providing shelter is as fundamental to preserving human life as providing food and water. But even with help from the UN Refugee Agency, refugees still have to be incredibly resourceful to get and keep a roof above their heads.

Emergency shelter in a crisis

In the Dadaab camps in Kenya, refugees from neighbouring Somalia are given UNHCR plastic sheeting when they arrive, but they still have to scavenge for thin poles or scarce branches to turn it into a tent. It remains a precarious structure, which can be damaged by wind, flood or fire.

The UN Refugee Agency must also be able to provide more durable shelters — and with your continued support, we can.

More durable shelters

In the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya, the UN Refugee Agency has been involved in a joint project to build more robust shelters topped with corrugated iron roofs. Each shelter measures six metres by three metres and refugees help by making the mud bricks and building the walls. Since 2003, we’ve helped refugees to build 8,500 shelters, which placed end to end, would stretch for some 51 kilometres.

It costs almost $300 to provide all the materials (plus labour and transport costs) for one shelter, comprising iron sheets, nails, timber, bolts and hinges. With a target of 3,000 shelters in 2008, we’ll need to raise some $877,823 in the coming year to cover this work alone.

Shelter kits for those returning home

Another challenge is to provide housing for refugees who return home.

In Tanzania, all Burundian refugees registered in the camps receive a package of essentials when they are repatriated, including a blanket, a sleeping mat and plastic sheeting. Some families also receive building materials including roof sheets, tiles, windows and doors.

A tent, a blanket, a little stove: they mean so much

Right now, in refugee camps around the world, there are 33 million people relying on us for shelter. In Touloum Camp in Chad, refugees from Darfur have fenced small ‘gardens’ around their tents. Today, you may see a woman preparing to cook on a small stove or a mother washing her baby (with clean water from the camp stand-pipe). Life goes on. And it is thanks to people like you that it does.