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Kaltoum Ali Asad has been a volunteer with one of Oxfam's Health Committees since arriving in Abu Shouk camp just over three years ago. Having fled her home due to the conflict in Darfur she's currently living in the camp with her eight children, who are aged three to seventeen.

What do you do?
'I'm an Oxfam volunteer on the Health Committee in Abu Shouk camp. My main job is to mobilise the community and visit households every day. Today I'm visiting at the blocks to see what conditions people are living in, as well as seeing their hygiene practises, for example water purification, use and storage, and domestic hygiene in terms of safe food storage.

Our role is mainly in sensitising the community and giving them some key information, like hand washing and safe excreta disposal, as well as safe water storage and purification. We are really suffering from a water shortage in Abu Shouk due to water depletion and the fact that the annual rainfall isn't guaranteed to recharge the water sources every year.

We mainly focus on the major hygiene messages such as washing hands at critical times, looking after children's personal hygiene - as well as the adults own - and domestic hygiene, including the condition of the cooking area and utensils. We have to ensure that food that's being eaten is cooked in a safe way and is stored in a safe place away from anything that can contaminate it. And not to dispose of food in the rubbish but to dispose of it in a way that doesn't encourage anything that will contaminate and spread diseases, like mice and flies, which can help spread infectious diseases.

We encourage the community to clean the whole area.indoors and outdoors, and around the blocks in order to get rid of anything that might contaminate and spread diseases so that people stay healthy all the time.

We also need to encourage them to get rid of any stagnant water. So we support them to construct proper drainage systems and/or improve the drainage system. This will be one of the main challenges during the rains as we'll face a lot of malaria.

One of the most important aspects of our work is to ensure that the latrines have been used properly and that they're safe for the whole household to use. And if the latrine is full we encourage the community to recycle the latrine and backfill the drop hole. We then follow up with an Oxfam representative in the camp to rehabilitate the superstructure as well as the slab. If the slab is broken we report it to the respective person from Oxfam and they come and mend it.

Why do you continue to be a volunteer?
I still insist on being a volunteer because I understand what volunteering means and the impact it can have. I want to work hard for my people because I know what the potential is of an outbreak of disease. We can really experience a lot of outbreaks, like acute watery diarrhoea and other diarrhoeas, which can have a serious impact on the community. It can really affect everyone here and that's why I'm determined, even after three years, to continue working as a volunteer with Oxfam. If we don't continue to work as volunteers we won't discourage these diseases from spreading, so it's very important to continue to inform the community and encourage them to improve their hygiene practises so that this doesn't happen.

Others might be looking after their own business but for us volunteers we believe that if we work as volunteers we will gain more benefit than gaining money, and we are discouraging diseases from spreading around the community.

What's it like living in the camp?
As an IDP I didn't have any other option except to come to this camp. And I'm still in this camp (three years later) because I don't have anywhere else to go to. Since we left our village all the people scattered to different areas. Some left to Chad, some left to Nyala.etc. All our families and relatives have scattered to different places. When we first arrived here the situation was really dreadful. Then the aid agencies intervened. We really appreciate the service that the INGOS are providing in the camp, especially water, sanitation and hygiene promotion.

We've stayed in this camp all this time for a lot of justifiable reasons. Though we don't have any means of making a living, which will meet and support the needs of our families, there are no guarantees of security back in our home villages. So we insist on remaining here..we'll not leave the camp.

When do you think you'll be able to return?
I doubt if we can go back to our area of origin because even those who remained behind are now starting to arrive at the camps. We'd need guarantees that everywhere is secure and safe for civilians.

Are you able to earn any money?
'Sometimes I'll walk to El Fasher town and find a job cleaning, sweeping, washing clothes. I'll get 150 SD (37p) for washing a dozen clothes, which takes all afternoon. There isn't much you can buy for 150 SD.maybe a bundle of firewood. We stopped collecting firewood outside the camp because it became too dangerous.so now I buy from the market because I'm afraid I'll be attacked if I try to collect wood outside the camp. 100 SD buys a bundle of firewood.that might last for one meal.but not more. Food is another challenge. The children might go for more than a month without the food we think is valuable for them.fruits, vegetables, meat. Meat is very expensive, 1,000 SD (£2.50/$5) for a kilo, and I don't have the money to buy it, and there are no adequate vegetables I can get as a substitute. We have the experience of commercial business but we don't have the money or the resources because all was lost when we were attacked. I have four jerry cans for a household of 9 -- 8 children and myself. They can last us 3 days.depending on the situation.they might last one. And then it takes me 3 days to fill them at the water point. I've no money to buy water so when we run out I have to beg for a small amount from my neighbours or at the water point.just enough for survival.

Do you think there will be peace soon?
No.I doubt it. Every day there are new referrals to the hospital from the conflict.