The main thing I remember about my village is the colour green. It was always green because I can always remember when my parents would take me to the fields in which my father worked. But then one day, everything changed for the worse. I was playing with my toys when the bad men came. It was very scary because they started yelling at my dad and suddenly there was a loud bang and dad stopped talking. I ran straight to my mom to tell her what had happened but I couldn’t really explain it. Mom seemed to understand though, because she told me to take care of my brother Hassan and go o our neighbour Sadiya’s house. The walk was long because the village was far away from the fields but when we arrived at the village, Sadiya found us and the relief was great.

By stephen

So when I was young I remember green the colour green. I remember my Dad used to take me out to the fields with him while he worked my mum would bring him lunch and we would all eat together under a tree. I loved my toys I would always play with them under the tree I used to build houses with them. But one day while I was playing with them these men came out of nowhere I’d never seen them before they walked in to the field and started talking to my father then they started yelling. Suddenly these loud bangs came out of nowhere I ran to the house. I saw my mum walking to the fields with lunch and hassan with her It was hard to tell her what happened because I was so young but she seemed to understand that something bad was happening. My mum told me to take hassan and run to the house next door Sadiya she would take care of us we got there so we ran with Sadiya and we heard fighting gunshots screaming but I was still thinking where is mum ?! As we were walking our group got smaller smaller and smaller and we got very weak so we got to a hospital as we got better we had to learn how to walk when we got better we got a foster mum (Fatuma) I didn’t really like my foster mum I wanted my real mum but now I do like her. Fatuma would always help hassan because he would allay get seizures and sick but he is always ok because of the help but I just want my Mum.

By Darcy

I was born in the small town of Mareerey in Somalia. I lived with my mother, father and baby brother Hassan. My father was a farmer and often brought me with him to the fields. Even though I was very young I remember those green fields where my father farmed and where my mother would bring us lunch. One day everything changed, while I was playing with the toys my father made me, angry men that we didn't know arrived in our fields with weapons. They started yelling at my father before I heard loud gunshot noises. I ran back to our house and on my way I met my mother and brother bringing us lunch. I tried to explain what had happened and my mother somehow understood what had happened. She told me not to be scared but to take my brother and run as fast as we could back to the village to our neighbour. We struggled as it was a long distance. When we reached our village we heard more gunshots. Soon everyone was screaming and we ran and ran and ran.There was fighting in every direction, I was terrified but couldn't give up because Hassan needed me. We knew we had to find somewhere safe so we walked with neighbours for weeks. Our group got bigger as fighting continued everywhere but soon got smaller as people died on the journey including our neighbour Sadiya. Someone in the group had heard about a safe place for Somalis to go to in Kenya. When we heard fighting we hid in bushes but sometimes they would find us. We finally made it too Dadaab we're put in hospital for a long time and I had to learn how to walk again.

I remember fields of green for as far as the eye could see, with trees with sprouted saplings adding some colour to to the leaves. I would come out with my father as he worked in the fields, and my mama would bring us food and we would eat under a tree.

One day I was playing with my toys and some strange men I hadn't seen before walked up to my dad. they were talking for a bit and then they started yelling, and they held up some sort of stick? and it made a loud noise which made my dad fall down. He didn't get back up. I was so scared I ran and ran back to my mama who was carrying Hassan, and I tried to explain what had happened, but I was so little and I just couldn't find the words but she seemed to understand the general idea.

She gave me Hassan and told me to go to our neighbour Sadiya. Our village was very far from the field we were in and Hassan was very, very young and he couldn't walk very fast at all but we got there eventually and when we got to Sadiya she ushered us inside.

About 5 seconds after Sadiya brought us inside her house we started to hear the loud noise again and screaming, so, so much screaming. We ran out of the house and both me and Hassan started crying and I kept asking where my mama was but Sadiya picked up Hassan and grabbed my hand and we ran. We ran and ran and every direction led us to more fighting and strange men and sometimes we would have to hide in bushes or cut through fences and I just kept asking for mama but even though I felt we ran everywhere but I didn't see her at all.

We joined up with a big group from the village and we walked with them we walked for weeks on end and we were slow because the majority of the group were old people or mothers with young children and it was very hard. When we ran into the strange men we would hide in the bushes and if they found us they would take our food, our clothes, everything we had with us. Sometimes some of the people in our group would go to sleep and they wouldn't wake up and others would cry and we would have to bury them. Eventually we had to bury Sadiya.

We kept on walking and I got more tierd and skinnier with every step. finally we got to a place called Dadaab. The people there said they would look after us. There was so many people waiting in the line, much, much bigger than our group at that time.

They took me and Hassan away from our group and to the hospital. I don't remember much about the hospital. All I remember was feeling so tired and hungry and I felt like I was fading away, but, slowly but surely, I started to feel alright again. I was taught to walk again.

A worker took us to this lady called Fatuma. He said she was going to be our foster mum. I didn't like Fatuma at first, I wanted our real mum. I also didn't like the food we had to eat. I was used to the meat and vegetables we had on our farm.

I started to notice that Hassan wasn't like the other kids his age. He only said "hooyo". He had tantrums in which he could scream and kick for hours on end without getting tired and I was the only one who could calm him down. He also started having things called seizures. He would fall down and his body would start jerking around and I didn't know how to stop it so I would call Fatuma.

Other people would come to Fatuma's tent and try persuade her to stop being our foster mum and tie up Hassan but Fatuma would yell at them for saying such crazy things. I started to like Fatuma after that.

By Tadhg

Before I came to the dadaab refugee camp I lived in Somalia in Mareerey. One day Me and my dad were in our field then a group of strange men Approached my dad They started shouting and then I heard a gunshot. My dad was dead. I ran to my mother who is holding Hassan my younger brother she told us to run as fast as we could to our elderly neighbour called Sadiya. when we reached there there was gunshots and screaming the whole village fled. Us and all our neighbours started walking we didn’t know where we were going All we knew was we had to get out of there. People in our group were dying, unfortunately Sadiya was one of them our group was getting smaller, but eventually we made it to the dadaab refugee camp. We were so weak as we had been travelling for days. The UN workers took me and Hassan away from the group into the hospital. I was barely conscious. We spent a long time in the hospital so long that the nurses had to retrain me to walk. When we got Out of the hospital, the UN workers took us to Fatma‘s tent. They told us that she would be our foster mum. I didn’t like her but when Hassan started having seizures, she stood by him and that was when I really started to like her. I hope to find My real mom one day. If she’s out there I hope she’s looking for us to

I came to Dadaab because there is a war in Somalia where I am from.So my dad used to take me out to grassy feilds and we would have lunch under a tree.Then these weird men came and started talking to my dad then I heard BANG BANG BANG I ran over to my mom and tried to tell her what happened but I wasn’t very clear but I think she understood me.When she saw what was happening she told me to take care of Hassan and bring his to our neighbours house and she would take care of us.When we got to her house she told us to come in but then there was more bangs and there was screams aswell. We had to run away but Mama wasn’t there.We were walking for days ,months.But poor Sadiya(she is the neighbour)didn’t make it.When we got to Dadaab all the UN worker called us refugees.Me and Hassan had to go into hospital for a while.I had to relearn how to walk.But when I was let out we were given a foster mum her name was Fatuma.i didn’t really like her at the start because I just wanted my real mom.After a while I started to like Fatuma because she helped Hassan when he had a seizure.

By Éabha