Classroom for Children in Kakuma Refugee Camp

https://youtu.be/8RDvROBBgEM

Hello!

My name is Victoria, I am 21 years old and a student of International Relations at Royal Holloway University of London. For the past month, I have been volunteering with a refugee-led organisation called PDRI (Peace for Development Refugees Initiative) in Kakuma Refugee Camp, in North-western Kenya.

In Swahili, the name Kakuma translates into 'nowhere'. While that name seems appropriate considering that Kakuma is located far away from everything, and seems to be in the middle of nowhere, to more than 200’000 people Kakuma is home. Kakuma is the place where they grew up, where they went to school, got married, and raised their family. Many of the camp residents have never even known a life outside of the camp.

The Peace for Development Refugees Initiative is a refugee-led organization in Kakuma Refugee Camp established in 2016 with the aim of addressing the challenges and needs of the refugee communities through various programs. They are committed to promote lasting peace and development through their department of activities. They have five of them; Early Childhood Development (ECD), Sports, Peacebuilding, ICT and Women Empowerment.

All of their members are refugees themselves and give their time to implement all of these activities, which are all free of charge.

PDRI does not have regular donors to fund these activities, which is a major challenge. However, from what I have seen, they manage to do so much with very little and make every shilling go a long way.

During my time here, I have visited all of PDRI's activities but I also have visited other Community Based Organisations in the camp. I also have conducted interviews with members of some of the most vulnerable groups such as widows, orphans, and disabled people. Furthermore, I have visited members of different communities and taken part in a meeting with all the community leaders as part of PDRI's Peace Center Project. This project aims to establish a platform and a space where the leaders of the different communities (Sudanese, South Sudanese, Congo, Rwanda, and so on) can meet and discuss issues, as well as resolve conflicts peacefully. Indeed, the incredible diversity of ethnicity and nationality in Kakuma also means that sometimes violent conflicts erupt between the different communities which in some cases happen to turn deadly.

The Community Leaders Platform

However, today I am reaching out to you on behalf of PDRI's Early Childhood Development Program. I have attended one of their classes and have even taught the children on another day in order to get a deeper understanding of the challenges PDRI faces, teaching these children.

The future of these children lies in the education they receive today. Unfortunately, the primary and secondary schools in the camp which are run by the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) are over-crowded and underfunded. This results in many problems including many children falling behind, struggling, and even dropping out. In a classroom where 150 children are fighting to find themselves a space and where they risk suffocating because of the heat, the teacher cannot look after those who struggle. This is why PDRI offers some courses for young children, where the facilitators can look out for those who need help or encouragement.

In the class I have facilitated, I have taught the children about emotions and have asked them to draw characters which were expressing them. This exercise aimed to encourage them to express feelings through drawing and to teach them how to show emotions through characters. To give them examples, I have used the characters of Inside Out, which they thought was really fun!

This week, PDRI has received some encouraging news; we have been selected to receive some funds to conduct our Early Childhood Development activities for one year, and these funds could be renewed for a second year (Up to £20,000 in total). Unfortunately, there is a big challenge; PDRI will only be able to receive these funds if they own a place where they can teach the children. As you can see , at the moment we do not have a classroom and we have to teach the children outside, which is far from ideal considering the hot climate of Kakuma (the temperature during my time here has been mostly between 33 et 35 degrees celsius).

There is a space for sale, adjacent to PDRI's office which would be perfect to transform into a classroom. The total price for this space is approximately CHF 2500 or £2200. Thanks to the donations we have already received, we have been able to pay a part of the price and the owner has agreed for the remaining sum to be paid over the next few months.

It would break my heart if PDRI were to lose that amazing opportunity -one year worth of funding - because they could not afford to own their own ECD classroom. So I am kindly asking you to consider helping us, with whatever you can afford. I know every cent will be appreciated by all the PDRI members and I thank you in advance on their behalf.

In the meantime if you want to learn more about PDRI, please check out their Website and Social Media by clicking on that link!

Asante Sana! Thank You!