More than 1.2 million people have fled the fighting in North Kivu since the end of 2007. As security improves in a number of regions some of these displaced persons are starting to return home, but many of them are still staying with host families. Others survive in makeshift, overcrowded camps. Life is touch and go for the displaced, who are short of everything. The ICRC and the Red Cross Society of the DRC are providing them with food and drinking water. The two organizations are also supporting hospitals and health centres in the areas concerned and are trying to reunite families who have been wrenched apart by the conflict.