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The goal of this study was to examine the effect of interactive radio instruction (IRI) in improving the literacy skills of out-of-school children in IDP camps in Nigeria. The study was a quasi-experiment involving 470 children who were out of school at the time of the study. The indices for measuring literacy skills included phonological skills, letter knowledge, oral comprehension and vocabulary skills. The result of the intervention showed that although all the children scored low regarding their literacy skills at pre-intervention, participants in the IRI group reported a significant improvement in their literacy skills after the intervention. A follow-up assessment was carried out after twelve months and the result showed stability in the literacy skills of participants in the IRI group while those in the control group did not improve in their literacy skills over time. Comparatively, IRI was found to be more efficient in improving literacy skills than a face-to-face learning environment. The implications of these results on learning have been highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade, the number of refugees and internally displaced people (IDP) has doubled. This prompted the construction of more refugee camps and the proliferation of existing camps with diverse structural morphologies. Satellite imagery and machine learning (ML) are increasingly utilized to map these camps. However, there exists no standardized inventory that systemizes the built-up structures of these camps. In this study, we conceptualize the settlement morphology of refugee and IDP camps from satellite images and create a structure catalogue. Using visual image interpretation (VII) of very-high-resolution and multitemporal imagery, we compile a global database of settlement structures from 285 camps across 1,053 observations. This catalogue is subsequently used to synthesize patterns in camp structures and temporal dynamics. The results show stark variations in settlement structures across camps. Despite some similar regional patterns, stark differences in morphologies are a testament to the global heterogeneous landscape of refugee and IDP camp structures. These findings highlight the importance of considering morphological differences in image analyses across camps in future designs of ML-based automated detection and monitoring efforts. Therein, the Structure Catalogue serves as an important foundation for future earth observation for humanitarian applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cash‐based interventions are increasingly used in humanitarian response, including in the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector. To strengthen evidence, we conducted a qualitative study on cash‐based interventions programs for WASH operations and maintenance in Kachin, Myanmar. We collected field data for one programme and completed a desk review for two programs. We found camp‐based committees were responsible for spending decisions and cash use was aligned with community needs/priorities. Programme strengths included community empowerment, time effectiveness; programme weaknesses included funding insecurity, limited training and monitoring and vulnerable groups inclusion. Recommendations for cash‐based WASH operation and maintenance programs in Kachin and similar contexts are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Partly structured by ethnic oppositions, the Burundian conflict that began in 1993 has generated a large number of direct victims (killed by the war) and indirect victims (as a result of the deterioration of living conditions). In addition to mortality, this crisis has caused numerous forced displacements. The objective of this article is to understand the factors of overexposure to this mortality, based on the profile of the victims of the Burundian civil war according to various characteristics (age, gender, etc.) and by analyzing the very strong geographical differences in war mortality. The use of the Demographic and Reproductive Health Survey conducted in 2002 (ESDSR Burundi 2002) makes it possible to estimate mortality rates based on the declarations of the respondents on the survival of their children and the survival of their parents. When the death of a relative is reported, it is possible to distinguish whether it is the result of armed violence or another cause, which allows the estimation of war mortality rates by age and sex. At the level of the survey sectors, and in order to neutralize the effect of small numbers of respondents in each sector and the effect of differences in sex and age composition, standardized war mortality rates have been estimated. These estimates are proposed for two periods: 1993, characterized by mass killings and their repression, and 1994-2001, characterized by guerrilla warfare and sporadic abuses. In addition to this temporal distinction, the regrouping of populations in 1993 and 1994, and then during the years 1996-1999, indirectly provides a great deal of information on the exposure of different parts of the population to war mortality, depending on their situation in relation to political, ethnic and regional issues, within the framework of the complex human geography of Burundi.

Abstract Background The need for early identification of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in communities was high in Yemen during the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic because most cases presenting to health facilities were severe. Early detection of cases would allow early interventions to interrupt the transmission chains. This study aimed to describe the implementation of community-based surveillance (CBS) in in internally displaced people (IDP) camps and urban settings in Yemen from 15 April 2020 to 30 September 2020. Methods Following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance for evaluation of surveillance systems, we assessed the usefulness and acceptability of CBS. For acceptability, we calculated the proportion of trained volunteers who reported disease alerts. To assess the usefulness, we compared the alerts reported through the electronic diseases early warning system (eDEWS) with the alerts reported through CBS and described the response activities implemented. Results In Al-Mukalla City, 18% (14/78) of the volunteers reported at least one alert. In IDP camps, 58% (18/31) of volunteers reported at least one alert. In Al-Mukalla City, CBS detected 49 alerts of influenza-like illness, whereas health facilities detected 561 cases of COVID-19. In IDP camps, CBS detected 91 alerts of influenza-like illness, compared to 10 alerts detected through eDEWS. In IDP camps, CBS detected three other syndromes besides influenza-like illness (febrile illness outbreak suspicion, acute diarrhoea, and skin disease). In IDP camps, public health actions were implemented for each disease detected and no further cases were reported. Conclusions In Yemen, CBS was useful for detecting suspected outbreaks in IDP camps. CBS implementation did not yield expected results in general communities in urban areas in the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic when little was known about the disease. In the urban setting, the system failed to detect suspected COVID-19 cases and other diseases despite the ongoing outbreaks reported through eDEWS. In Yemen, as in other countries, feasibility and acceptability studies should be conducted few months before CBS expansion in urban communities. The project should be expanded in IDP camps, by creating COVID-19 and other disease outbreak reporting sites.

Background: Emergency contraception (EC) offers women a second chance to avoid unintended pregnancy after unprotected sexual intercourse. Besides its availability, requisite knowledge and positive attitude of the healthcare works will encourage its utilization by the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) and host community. Objectives: To determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of EC by healthcare workers (HCWs) in IDP camps and host community clinics in Jere and Maiduguri metropolitan local government areas (LGAs) of Borno state, Nigeria. Methodology: Self-administered questionnaires were issued to HCWs attending a workshop on child spacing counselling and service organized by the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria, North-East sector (SOGON-NE). The questionnaire inquired about knowledge, attitudes and practice of emergency contraception. Results: Eighty-nine (89.0%) of the respondents were aware of EC and 88.0% have approved of its provision. The most common indication for the EC was unprotected sexual intercourse (91.0%), followed by rape, failed contraception and missed pills. Sixty-five (84.4%) of Nurse/Midwives and CHEWs were willing to provide EC for prospective clients and 59(76.6%) of them had provided EC in the past. The commonest form of EC known to the respondents was Levonorgestrel (Postinor 2), followed by oral contraceptive pills (OCP) and intrauterine device (IUCD). Mifepristone and ulipristal were known to only 23.6% and 11.2% of the respondents respectively. Majority (79.6%) will give EC immediately after intercourse. Only 46.1% of the respondents would institute EC within 7 days of unprotected intercourse and among them, 50% were Nurse/Midwives and 46.4% were CHEWs. Conclusion: Both the knowledge and approval of EC among the HCWs in the IDP camps and host community clinics in Jere and Maiduguri metropolitan LGAs of Borno state are high. This can be harnessed to encourage the wide utilization of the EC by adolescents and other vulnerable women in the IDP camps and host communities.

Background: The need for early identification of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in communities was high in Yemen during the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic because most cases presenting to health facilities were severe. Early detection of cases would allow early interventions to interrupt the transmission chains. This study aimed to describe the implementation of community-based surveillance (CBS) in in internally displaced people (IDP) camps and urban settings in Yemen from 15 April 2020 to 30 September 2020. Methods: Following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance for evaluation of surveillance systems, we assessed the usefulness and acceptability of CBS. For acceptability, we calculated the proportion of trained volunteers who reported disease alerts. To assess the usefulness, we compared the alerts reported through the electronic diseases early warning system (eDEWS) with the alerts reported through CBS and described the response activities implemented. Results: In Al-Mukalla City, 18% (14/78) of the volunteers reported at least one alert. In IDP camps, 58% (18/31) of volunteers reported at least one alert. In Al-Mukalla City, CBS detected 49 alerts of influenza-like illness, whereas health facilities detected 561 cases of COVID-19. In IDP camps, CBS detected 91 alerts of influenza-like illness, compared to 10 alerts detected through eDEWS. In IDP camps, CBS detected three other syndromes besides influenza-like illness (febrile illness outbreak suspicion, acute diarrhoea, and skin disease). In IDP camps, public health actions were implemented for each disease detected and no further cases were reported. Conclusions: In Yemen, CBS was useful for detecting suspected outbreaks in IDP camps. CBS implementation did not yield expected results in general communities in urban areas in the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic when little was known about the disease. In the urban setting, the system failed to detect suspected COVID-19 cases and other diseases despite the ongoing outbreaks reported through eDEWS. In Yemen, as in other countries, feasibility and acceptability studies should be conducted few months before CBS expansion in urban communities. The project should be expanded in IDP camps, by creating COVID-19 and other disease outbreak reporting sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Post-abortion care (PAC) is a crucial component of emergency obstetric care, and many of the primary health care centres (PHC) in the internally displaced person (IDP) camps and host communities in Maiduguri lack it. Improved access to high-quality PACs is essential for meeting the reproductive health needs of the IDPs and reducing the maternal morbidity and mortality that can result from miscarriages. OBJECTIVE: To determine the trend in managing miscarriages in the IDP camps and host communities in Maiduguri and the impact of the volunteer obstetrician scheme (VOS) on PAC., Methodology: We conducted a longitudinal study in selected PHCs serving IDP camps and host communities in Maiduguri. The study spanned five (5) years, and we compared the management of miscarriages and PAC services one year before the VOS project, two years during the project and two years after the project. During the two-year VOS project, staff manning the PHCs had supportive supervision with hands-on training on PAC. Chi-square for trend and odd ratio with a 95% confidence interval was used as appropriate to compare the trend in PAC services provided during the study period., Results: One thousand eight hundred and eight (1808) women presented with miscarriages, and 1562 (86.4%) required uterine evacuation. Medical evacuation with oral misoprostol was offered to 974 (62.4%), and manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) was used in 422 (27.0%) of the women who needed uterine evacuation. There was a statistically significant rise in the use of medical evacuation throughout the study period (52.2% before VOS, and 71.4% by the second year of VOS) with ꭓ2=41.64 and P<0.001. In comparison, the use of MVA fell from 38.6% in 2015 to 27.7% in 2019 (ꭓ2=34.74 and P<0.001). Similar rising trends were also observed in postabortion family planning acceptance (ꭓ2=22.27, P<0.001)., Conclusion: The Volunteer Obstetrician Scheme project appears to have improved PAC services, especially medical evacuation and family planning uptake in the PHCs in IDP camps and host communities in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria. We recommend task shifting of PAC services and periodic supportive supervision to ensure the quality of care., Competing Interests: The Authors declare that no competing interest exists, (Copyright © 2024 by West African Journal of Medicine.)

Over the past decades, Iraq has witnessed an important population movement, and in many periods, it has been characterized by a high rate and expansion of its repercussions. This movement has included internal migration from rural to urban areas, and from small towns to big cities, it also included significant number of uprooted population inside Iraq, and the dense migration to outside of Iraq. The phenomenon of displacement is one of the most prominent population phenomena witnessed by Iraq in recent decades, which led to the masses of the population of a number of areas to move to other places and regions. The reason of this displacement of high incidence has been violence and armed attacks. The current humanitarian crisis did not happen suddenly. With the fall of Mosul on June 10th, 2014, a series of parallel and interlocking developments caused this large and unexpected event, including the ability of terrorist gangs to control up to one third of Iraqi territory, and the subsequent waves of displacement. In this research, multivariate statistical analysis methods were applied. The Cluster Analysis method was used to identify the disparities in the distribution of IDP camps among the Iraqi governorates after Mosul events in terms of the number of displaced families, and the distribution of families. A multivariate discriminating analysis was also used to identify the type of displacement camps (tents and caravans) that contribute significantly to this displacement variance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Effective menstrual management is essential for the mental and physical well being of women. However, many women in low-income countries lack access to the materials and facilities required. They are thus restricted in their activities whilst menstruating thus compromising their education, income and domestic responsibilities. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This study describes the menstrual management challenges faced by women in an emergency situation in Uganda. Totally, 50 interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with women from villages, internally displaced person (IDP) camps and schools so that the menstrual management of the host population could be compared with the IDPs. Findings – This study showed that in IDP camps there was a significant lack of materials including soap, underpants and absorbing cloth, and facilities like latrines and bathing shelters. As a consequence women in IDP camps suffer with poor health and diminished dignity. There is also a lack of education about menstruation and reproductive health and practices are strongly influenced by cultural taboos. Originality/value – This is the first time that the menstrual management of women in IDP or refugee camps has been studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the reasons of HIV infections in Pader, Uganda. It states that Pader was a hotspot during the war which led to several problems to its citizen including insecurity, poverty and hunger. It mentions higher level of awareness among people in the region regarding HIV infections and high prevalence of the risk of HIV infection in the region.

Abstract: In January, 2010 an earthquake struck Haiti near its capital of Port-au-Prince, causing possibly the largest urban natural disaster in modern times. Within a week of the earthquake, hundreds of informal camps were erected across Port-au-Prince by persons displaced by the earthquake, termed internally displaced persons (IDPs). This paper attempts to determine the extent to which the geographic distribution of these IDP camps can be explained using geographic factors such as topography, population density, and availability of open space. A logistic regression model revealed that the three factors most predictive of IDP camp distribution were distance from the international airport, distance from the city center, and elevation. Together with five other significant variables, the logistic model predicted the presence of IDP camps in a 50-m-cell grid across the study area with up to 70% accuracy. Further statistical analysis explained roughly 35% of variance in IDP camp size, though these results were difficult to interpret. The resulting method and predictive maps are promising in their ability to inform natural disaster managers when preparing for extensive displacement, evacuation, or sustenance of an urban population following a natural disaster. These methods can be used to improve estimates of risk and social vulnerability to natural hazards. However, more research is needed to validate the methods for other locations and natural disasters. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Looking at the internally displaced people (IDP) camp in Pabbo, northern Uganda, the article focuses on aspects of displacement less frequently discussed. People in Pabbo were not only victimised by violence from the side of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels on one side and the Ugandan government on the other. They also felt threatened by the experience of a moral crisis in the IDP camp. At the centre of this crisis was the family, the place where people were supposed to care for each other and control each other's behaviour. The setting of the IDP camp was experienced as making this ideal model of mutuality and accountability impossible. The ways in which threats of witchcraft, HIV/AIDS and antisocial behaviour were discussed reflected this crisis of the family. In an effort to restore what was expressed as collectively acceptable moral values, people in Pabbo resorted to measures which to outsiders may appear violent. This led to the somewhat contradictory situation in which aid agencies, working in the region, informed people's understanding of the moral crisis (mostly through HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns) but found it impossible to reconcile their human rights-based approach with the local measures of social control aimed at restoring moral values. The people of Pabbo, this case study suggests, were far from being passive victims of powerful outside actors. Rather, they had clear ideas of the threats they experienced and found ways of acting against them. They exercised agency, but mostly within their own terms of reference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project combines qualitative data of personal narratives with geographic information science (GIScience) technologies to explore the potential for critical cartography in the study of mass atrocity. The case study used is northern Uganda, where millions have been affected by physical violence and hardship, displacement, and fear. Web-based virtual globes as a ready source of imagery for remote areas and derived spatial data imported to geographic information systems (GIS) provide quantified data that complement testimonials and other qualitative data from the field. Cartographic functions, geovisualization, and spatial analyses available in GIS are used to extract information from high-resolution remote sensing images documenting internally displaced persons (IDP) camps and quantifying evidence of crimes against humanity. These techniques explore spatial relationships and communicate results on the extent and impact of the atrocities in northern Uganda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of internal displacement has always existed. It however became the subject of significant concern for the international community since after World War 2, with the violation of the human rights of the displaced arising mostly from the intensification of intra-state wars around the world. The article presented an integrated data on the problems of forced displacement and adopted coping strategies among displaced women in selected IDPs camps in Nigeria. The study used a qualitative approach with a descriptive survey to explain the major problems of forced displacement. The population included women and focus group discussion (FGD) guide was adopted to elicit responses from the study population. Data was described with the use of a 3-D Chart and the data-set is broadly available for further investigation. The findings identified lack of adequate care and financial lack as the major challenges affecting displaced women while economic opportunities was the most significant coping strategy. It was recommended that government and intervening humanitarian agencies will consistently adopt reliable legal and institutional framework for the management of internal displacement and displaced victims in Nigeria.

In this article the author reports on the work done by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees serving internally displaced persons confined to a camp in the Kitgum region of Uganda. The refugees were displaced as a result of the protracted guerrilla action undertaken by the Lords Resistance Army. The article notes that the guerrillas have been defeated to the point that the task of returning refugees to their homes can commence.