Refugees and their coping strategies in West Nile refugee settlement

Abstract

This is a study on coping strategies among refuges in Rhinocamp refugee settlement which was conducted from December 2015 to May 2016. The study examined the various coping strategies employed by refugees, the local copping support systems, influence of spiritual and other local beliefs on refugees’ ability to cope and the effect of formal support within the settlements on refugees’ ability to cope. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used in this research Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the various copping strategies, the beliefs, the local support systems and the formal support structures. Multi Nomial Logit (MNL) was used to analyze factors influencing choice of coping strategy adopted by refugees. Chi square tests were used to establish association between belief of the respondents and their feelings. The results from the descriptive statistics showed that the refugees had limited coping strategies. Besides, the local support systems and the formal support structures were not adequate for the refugees. A few of the respondents had belief systems that influenced their feelings. The results of the MNL showed that sex, age, education level and religion of respondents had a significant influence on their choice of coping strategy at different significant - levels, while there was a significant association between belief of the respondents and their feelings. The study concluded that although the respondents had some copping strategies, they were limited in number. The majority of the respondents were more concerned with their physical survival than emotional coping. To improve coping among the refugee community in RhinoCamp Refugee Settlement, it is proposed that the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and other organizations need to focus on increasing physical support of items such as food, shelter and firewood, so that the refugees would not require so much energy to be put into these areas.