Fieldnotes: Blogging on UNICEF's child survival work in the field

© UNICEF/HQ07-0126/Pirozzi A child with malaria who may also be malnourished has the circumference of his arm measured at a mobile health clinic.

Today we visited Goz Amer, refugee camp where just a few days ago, some children found a grenade, brought into their schoolroom where it exploded, severely wounding 18 children. This incident illustrates the fact that eastern Chad has become so militarized that unexploded ordinances are strewn around the camps, posing yet another threat to this already vulnerable population.

In the camp, I met Ameni Khamis Abakar, a 15 year-old girl, one of victims of the grenade explosion. She was laying on the ground, her blood stained bandages were covered in flies.

Four years ago Ameni’s village was attacked by Janjaweed. ‘They killed all the men. We had to run without taking anything. Now we have nothing’.

When I asked Ameni want she wanted most, she said, ‘I want to have clothes and be like every child in the world. I want to go back to Darfur. We have to be here. But it is not my home.’

In Goz Beida hospital where other victims of the explosion were being cared for, there I met Hamis Hussain, a sweet faced 12 year-old boy, who was clearly in pain.

When Hamis’ Darfurian village was burned, his parents were killed. He and his older brother managed to reach Goz Amer refugee camp.

I sat with Hamis for a while and he began to murmur softly. The translator said Hamis was asking me, how I was feeling.

A child already traumatized by the Darfur conflict and now wrapped in bandages and in severe pain, found it in his heart to ask me how I was.

Over and over again, the courage and kindness of the people here is evident.