Fighting Hunger in Dzaleka, Building a More Secure Future

In Dzaleka Refugee Camp, hunger is not something we only read about in reports. We see it, we live with it, and we see its impact on children and families every day. As a refugee-led organization rooted in this community, Children Relief Service (CRS) understands these challenges because we experience them alongside the people we serve.

Since the departure or reduction of support from UNHCR and several implementing partners, life has become increasingly difficult for many refugee families. Limited livelihood opportunities, unemployment, rising living costs, and food insecurity are placing enormous pressure on households and increasing the vulnerability of children and young people. These challenges also affect vulnerable families in the host communities surrounding Dzaleka Refugee Camp, who face many of the same economic and food-security pressures.

Through the Feed the Hungry and Food Security for Sustainable Livelihoods Programme, CRS supports vulnerable refugee and host-community families by helping them meet immediate food needs while building their capacity to produce food and earn a living. We provide crop seeds, farming skills, practical agricultural knowledge, and livelihood opportunities that can help families strengthen food security and become more self-reliant.

Our goal is simple but urgent: for children to grow up without hunger, for families to have the means to feed themselves, and for both refugee and host communities to have sustainable opportunities to build a better future.

Why Food Security Matters in Dzaleka

When you live in Dzaleka, you quickly learn that hunger is never only about food. When a parent cannot find enough food for the family, the effects are felt at home, at school, and throughout the community. Children may go to school hungry, struggle to concentrate, miss classes, or go without the nutritious food they need to grow and develop well.

We see how difficult life has become for many families, especially since humanitarian support and services have decreased. When there is no food and no reliable way to earn an income, parents are forced to make painful choices just to get through the day. Children and young people can become more vulnerable to exploitation, early pregnancy, unsafe work, violence, and other risks. These are not distant problems for us at CRS. They are realities we see in the community around us.

This is why food security matters so much to us. A bag of crop seed can mean much more than a planting season. When a family receives seeds and learns how to farm effectively, they can grow food for their children, reduce their food spending, and, when there is a surplus, sell some of their produce to earn income. One small farm can begin to change the way a household provides for itself.

At CRS, we therefore believe that fighting hunger must also mean creating opportunities for families to produce their own food and build sustainable livelihoods. Through crop seed support, farming skills, agricultural knowledge, and livelihood opportunities, we work with vulnerable refugee families and families in the surrounding host communities to strengthen their ability to provide for themselves.

When a family can grow its own food, a child can eat with dignity. When a family can earn an income, it has more choices. And when families become more self-reliant, the whole community becomes stronger.

What We Do

Living in Dzaleka, we see how difficult it can be for a family to put food on the table when there is little income and few opportunities to earn a living. At CRS, we respond to these realities by helping families meet immediate food needs while supporting them to produce their own food and build sustainable livelihoods.

We provide food assistance, crop seeds, farming skills, food-production support, and livelihood opportunities for vulnerable refugee and host-community families. Our aim is not only to help a family today, but to give them the knowledge and resources they need to provide for themselves tomorrow.

WHAT WE DO & HOW WE HELP FAMILIES
Food Assistance When families are facing severe food shortages, CRS provides food assistance to help them meet their immediate needs. We especially focus on vulnerable children and families who may otherwise go without food.
Crop Seed SupportWe provide vulnerable refugee and host-community families with crop seeds so they can cultivate their own food. A small amount of seed can allow a family to turn available land into a source of food and, where possible, income.
Household Food Production We encourage families to grow crops and vegetables for their own households, helping them improve access to nutritious food, reduce dependence on purchased food, and have greater control over what their families eat.
Farming Skills and Agricultural Training Seeds alone are not enough. CRS helps families develop practical farming skills and knowledge, including crop production, soil management, climate-smart farming practices, and other techniques suited to local conditions.
Sustainable Livelihoods We help families explore practical ways to turn farming skills and available resources into sustainable sources of income, helping them meet household needs with greater dignity and independence.
Women and Youth Livelihood Opportunities We create opportunities for women and young people to develop practical skills, participate in food production, and engage in income-generating activities that can strengthen their independence and contribute to household wellbeing.
Income from Surplus Production When families produce more food than they need, we encourage them to sell part of their harvest. The income can help pay for education, healthcare, food, and other essential household needs.
Community-Led Solutions We believe the people of Dzaleka and the surrounding communities are not simply recipients of assistance. They are part of the solution. We work alongside community members to identify practical and sustainable ways to strengthen food production and livelihoods.

Our Goal: From Food Assistance to Self-Reliance

Our aim is not simply to put food on a family’s table today. It is to help that family develop the means to keep food on the table tomorrow. Through food assistance, crop seeds, farming skills, food production, and livelihood opportunities, we are working toward a community where children can grow without hunger and families have greater control over their own future.

Who We Support

Living and working in Dzaleka has taught us that behind every family struggling with hunger is a real person with hopes, responsibilities, and a desire to provide a better life for their children. We see parents who work hard but still cannot put enough food on the table, young people looking for opportunities, and children whose lives are affected when food is not available at home. We also see vulnerable families in the communities surrounding the camp facing many of the same challenges.

Through this programme, we support vulnerable refugee families, children and young people, women, and vulnerable families in the surrounding host communities who are struggling to access enough food or find reliable ways to earn a living. We focus our support on families who need practical opportunities to grow food, strengthen their livelihoods, and create a more secure future for their children.

WHO WE SUPPORT
Vulnerable Refugee Families We support refugee families in Dzaleka who are struggling to put enough food on the table or have limited opportunities to earn a living. Our support helps families access food, crop seeds, farming knowledge, and livelihood opportunities that can strengthen their ability to provide for themselves.
Children and Young People Children are at the heart of this programme. We work to ensure that children do not have to grow up hungry and that their families have the means to provide nutritious food and a safer environment for them to grow, learn, and develop.
Women and Female-Headed Households We support women who carry the responsibility of providing for their families, particularly those with limited access to income and productive resources. Through farming and livelihood opportunities, we help strengthen their ability to support their households with greater dignity and independence.
Youth We engage young people in practical farming, skills development, and livelihood opportunities that can help them move away from dependency and toward productive and dignified ways of earning a living.
Vulnerable Host-Community Families Our support also reaches vulnerable families living in communities surrounding Dzaleka Refugee Camp. We believe that strengthening food security and livelihoods should benefit both refugees and the communities that host them.
Small-Scale Farmers and Community Producers We support community members who want to strengthen their food production through access to crop seeds, agricultural knowledge, and practical farming skills that can improve household food supplies and create opportunities to generate income.

We believe that every family deserves the opportunity to put food on the table with dignity. When we provide food, crop seeds, farming skills, and livelihood opportunities, we are responding to the hunger families are facing today while helping them build the ability to provide for themselves tomorrow.

When a family becomes stronger and more self-reliant, its children have a better chance to grow, learn, and live without hunger, and the whole community becomes stronger.

Our Approach

Living in Dzaleka has shown us that there is no single solution to hunger. A family may need food today, but it also needs an opportunity to produce food tomorrow. A young person may need support now, but also needs skills and a way to earn a living in the future.

That is why CRS combines immediate support with practical, long-term solutions. We listen to families, understand the challenges they face, and work with them to identify opportunities that can help them grow food, strengthen their livelihoods, and become more self-reliant.

We believe the people of Dzaleka and the surrounding communities should not be seen only as people who need help. They have knowledge, skills, land, ideas, and the determination to build better lives. Our role is to support them, strengthen what they already have, and create opportunities for them to move forward.

OUR APPROACH
Immediate Support, Long-Term Solutions We respond to hunger when families need help today while creating opportunities for them to produce food, earn income, and become more self-reliant tomorrow.
Community-Led Action We work alongside people in Dzaleka and surrounding communities, listening to their experiences and supporting solutions that come from the community itself.
Building Farming Skills We provide practical farming knowledge and skills that help families make better use of available land, seeds, water, and other resources.
Supporting Household Food Production We help families grow crops and vegetables for their own households so they can improve access to nutritious food and reduce dependence on purchased food.
Linking Food Production to Income We help families see farming not only as a way to feed themselves but also as an opportunity to sell surplus produce and generate income for other household needs.
Prioritizing Vulnerable Families We focus our support on families and individuals facing the greatest challenges, particularly vulnerable children, women, young people, refugee households, and vulnerable host-community families.
Strengthening Refugee–Host Community Resilience We support both refugee and surrounding host communities, recognizing that working together can strengthen food security, livelihoods, relationships, and resilience across the wider community.

Moving from Hunger to Self-Reliance

We know that lasting change does not happen overnight. It begins with helping a family through a difficult moment and then walking alongside them as they build the skills, confidence, and opportunities they need to move forward.

We hope to see more families growing their own food, earning a dignified income, and giving their children a future with less hunger and greater opportunity.

Our Impact

For us, impact is not only measured by the number of families we reach. We see impact when a child has food to eat, when a parent can harvest from their own field, and when a family begins to believe that it can provide for itself again.

Since CRS began working in Dzaleka, we have seen how even small opportunities can make a meaningful difference. A bag of crop seed, practical farming knowledge, or support to start a small livelihood can give a family more than immediate assistance it can give them a chance to build something that continues to support them.

Through the Feed the Hungry and Food Security for Sustainable Livelihoods Programme, we continue working with vulnerable refugee and host-community families to reduce hunger, strengthen food production, and create pathways toward greater self-reliance.

What These Numbers Mean

Behind every number is a family.

A family that has been allowed to grow something, feed its children, and begin building a more secure future.

We may not yet have the resources to reach every family that needs support, but every family we can reach represents a step toward a stronger, more food-secure Dzaleka and surrounding community.

What We Aim to Achieve

We know that the need in Dzaleka is much greater than what CRS can currently reach. Every day, we meet families who want to work, farm, and provide for their children but simply do not have the seeds, skills, resources, or opportunities they need to get started.

We hope to expand this programme so that more families can move from depending on limited assistance to producing their own food, earning an income, and building a more secure future for their children.

We want to see a Dzaleka where fewer children go to bed hungry, more families have food growing around their homes and fields, and young people and women have opportunities to build dignified livelihoods.

FOOD SECURITY & FAMILY WELLBEING	LIVELIHOODS & COMMUNITY SELF-RELIANCE
More Families Growing Their Own Food We want to reach more vulnerable refugee and host-community families with crop seeds, farming knowledge, and practical support so they can produce more of the food their households need.	Stronger and More Sustainable Livelihoods We want families to use farming and other livelihood opportunities not only to feed themselves but also to generate income that can help them meet education, healthcare, food, and other basic needs.
Fewer Children Going to Bed Hungry Our greatest concern is the child who goes to sleep without enough food. We want to help families increase their food production so children can have regular access to nutritious meals and grow up healthier and stronger.	More Opportunities for Women and Young People: We want women and youth to have greater access to farming skills, productive resources, and livelihood opportunities that can help them build their own income and contribute more strongly to their families and communities.
Healthier and More Secure Families By strengthening household food production, we want families to have more reliable access to nutritious food and greater confidence in providing for their children.	Greater Resilience and Self-Reliance We want refugee and host-community families to become better able to withstand food shortages and economic difficulties while building the knowledge, resources, and confidence they need to provide for themselves and create a future they can sustain.

Building a Future Where Families Can Provide for Themselves

We know that the challenges facing families in Dzaleka are great, and we cannot solve them all at once. But we believe that every family given the opportunity to grow food, learn a skill, earn an income, and provide for their children is a step toward a stronger community.

We hope to see more children growing up without hunger, more families producing their own food, and more young people and women finding dignified ways to build their livelihoods.

We want to help create a future where families are not defined by what they lack, but by the opportunities they have to build better lives for themselves and their children.

Get Involved

We know that CRS cannot reach every family facing hunger on its own. The needs in Dzaleka and the surrounding communities are greater than the resources currently available to us. But with the right support, we can reach more families, provide more crop seeds, strengthen more farming skills, and create more opportunities for people to build sustainable livelihoods.

When you support this programme, you are not simply helping us provide food or farming inputs. You are helping a family plant, a parent provide, and a child grow up with less hunger and greater hope for the future.

There are several ways you can stand with families in Dzaleka and help us turn food insecurity into food security and opportunity.

HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT
PROVIDE CROP SEEDS Your support can help us provide maize, vegetable, legume, and other crop seeds to vulnerable families so they can plant, produce food, and reduce their dependence on food assistance.
SUPPORT FARMING SKILLS You can help CRS provide practical farming training so families can make better use of their land and available resources and improve their harvests.
SUPPORT LIVELIHOOD OPPORTUNITIES Your contribution can help women, young people, and families access productive resources and opportunities that turn food production and practical skills into sustainable sources of income.
PARTNER WITH CRS Organizations, churches, businesses, and individuals can partner with us through funding, technical support, agricultural resources, training, or other forms of collaboration that help us reach more families.

Take Action

The families we serve in Dzaleka and the surrounding communities are ready to work and build better lives. With the right support, more families can grow food, strengthen their livelihoods, and give their children a better chance to live without hunger.

Support Feed the Hungry and Food Security for Sustainable Livelihoods