Mental Health in Humanitarian Emergencies: The Forgotten Refugee Crisis
By Mercy Kachenge Kakuma Refugee Camp|Photo courtesy UNHCR Kenya Dau Machar Jok is a refugee twice over, a status that has shaped not only where he lives but also how he feels inside. His journey from South Sudan to Uganda and later to Kenya’s Kakuma Refugee Camp shows the deep emotional wounds caused by war and displacement. It is a crisis that is often ignored by the global humanitarian system, which focuses mostly on physical needs like food, water, and shelter, while neglecting the invisible wounds of the mind that is the mental wellbeing. Dau’s life as a displaced person began in 2002. His first memory of leaving South Sudan is not one of organized travel, but of panic. “The sound of guns, people running, you being carried and scattered,” he recalls. Dau Machar Jok A Refugee from Kakuma Camp ‘’ That moment of chaos marked the start of years filled with fear. Life in the Ugandan refugee camp that followed was unstable, with frequent ...