Kakuma Refugee Camp Holistic Support

IsraAID’s programming in the Palorinya Refugee Settlement in Moyo District provides Child Protection and basic educational services to the local population. Close to 330,000 individuals live in the area, including refugees and the host community, made up of 65% children under the age of 17. With 74% of households reporting that at least one member lacks the psychological care they need, protection services are crucial to provide urgent support. Uganda hosts more than 1.2 million refugees, just under one third of all refugees worldwide, and the highest number in Africa. 67% of these refugees are from neighboring South Sudan, where war and civil strife forced them from their homes; others are from the DRC, Burundi, Somalia, and Rwanda.

IsraAID’s team on the ground improves community-based Child Protection mechanisms, by providing daily activities for children in our Child Friendly Space (CFS). The CFS’ implementation model is designed to involve community members directly in ensuring that children have the resources they need to learn and grow.

Over the past months, IsraAID, thanks to the generous support from our partners, has begun to construct a new CFS, which will allow us to reach new families and children in need of support. Upon completion, this CFS will have capacity to host an average of 150 children per day, 6 days a week, for 8 hours per day. Daily programming in basic numeracy/literacy, recreational activities, sports, expressive arts, and psychosocial support will be implemented by refugee and host-community facilitators who have undergone intensive psychosocial and child protection training with IsraAID staff. In addition, the CFS will be used as an outreach hub to engage the wider community in the importance of Child Protection and advocate for education.

Currently, the building process is well underway, with the foundation set and the structures beginning to take shape. After the site was cleared of trees, bushes, and hills, the foundation’s pit was dug for the two-classroom block, as well as the latrine. The foundation and column base was set, made of concrete, and the brick for the walls is currently being laid for the classrooms. The latrine block is completed, with an iron roof. The steel casement for the doors have been fitted, and are awaiting painting, which will take place three weeks after the plaster surfaces have cured and been set. The external walls of the latrines are finished with
rough cast, to protect them from the effects of weathering. The latrines also have a gutter connection from the roof, a vent pipe to prevent bad odors, and a handwashing tank has been constructed next to the latrines.

Following a few issues with which  authorities had jurisdiction of the land (now resolved), the most significant challenge during this period was bad weather. Heavy rains slowed down the process of transporting materials to the construction site and delayed the contractor’s ability to keep up with the schedule. Although this has postponed the CFS’s launch date, the wet weather has helped to cure the CFS’s walls, which in the long term, will make the building far more durable and weather resistant.

In addition, the contractor faced some difficulty in employing a sufficient number of workers, which further slowed down the work. IsraAID staff stepped in, seeing this as an opportunity, and recruited local community members to support the process. Not only does this help speed up the process, but it also bolsters local ownership of the CFS.

Concurrent to the construction of the new CFS, IsraAID’s regional Protection team also trained the new, and existing, CFS facilitators from the refugee and host community. The training included Psychological First Aid (PFA), elements of Child  Protection, the Protection referral system, how to operate CFS and more!

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Due to the tumultuous climate of war in the region, Kakuma Refugee Camp has become a home to 187,000 refugees. IsraAID currently focuses its efforts on empowering women and youth, including new arrivals, offering support to the most vulnerable within the camp. A lack of proper sanitation and hygiene education, along with violence and poverty, make Kakuma a difficult place to live. Ariella is currently attending Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. She is one of two IsraAID Humanitarian Fellows volunteering in Kenya for summer 2019.

In Kakuma Refugee Camp, IsraAID-trained facilitators hold diagrams of women’s reproductive systems as they stand in front of an attentive class of forty-four.

This isn’t a typical classroom. The students are refugee women aged twenty-five and above, and for several of them, this is their first time learning about menstrual health. Many of the women cradle months-old babies in their arms. The classroom is broken into three informal groups according to language: Swahili, Arabic, and Kirundi. Each facilitator teaches the lesson to students in the language with which they are the most comfortable.

The facilitators, who are refugee women themselves, begin their lesson by passing around charts and diagrams that depict the process of menstruation. IsraAID trains refugees in Kakuma to lead workshops, promoting sustainability and independence in the community.

“In many communities, we are not told about this,” Amandine, one of the participants, tells me in Swahili. She explains to me that topics of women’s reproductive health and menstruation are not spoken about comfortably, and are frequently considered taboo. As a result, women often lack awareness of vital changes in their bodies and proper self-care for reproductive health.

It is essential that the workshops start with the basics — many of the women have different levels of understanding when it comes to menstrual hygiene. The training covers basic principles of menstrual hygiene management, including the biology of menstruation and aspects of reproductive health. Women are also trained in proper self-care during menstruation, including how to relieve pain and discomfort.

“By having more trainings like this one, we can begin to share the knowledge,” Amandine adds.

She says that she has never attended a class on menstrual hygiene and health before, but found this one very useful. She tells me that such training is important to the refugee community in Kakuma because it encourages women to gain a deeper understanding of their bodies. Their newfound knowledge also serves to support other women in the community who did not attend the class.

One of the older participants in the room tells me that the information is a good refresher. For her, the most important part of the lesson was learning about different reproductive and menstrual complications. Infections destabilize home life, she shared, because women often don’t know what is causing the issue and are unsure of how to seek treatment. By learning about prevention, women can take the initiative when it comes to their health.

“Women need more trainings,” insists Riziki, one of the facilitators. Riziki tells me that there are still many obstacles facing female refugees when it comes to these issues. Even purchasing menstrual supplies can be a challenge. Some women simply do not feel comfortable doing so, while others struggle to afford them.

The facilitators tell me that Kakuma’s environment poses a serious challenge for women seeking contraception. The overwhelming heat can cause birth control in the form of implants to fail, resulting in complications for many women. Tragically, issues surrounding bleeding and a lack of treatment often result in a woman’s death during childbirth. Risks associated with pregnancies are crucial for women in the community to understand. “If we educate more women, there wouldn’t be so many complications,” Riziki says.

IsraAID recognizes the need for further workshops to educate women in the community. An additional Menstrual Hygiene and Health training, specifically for adolescent girls, was also organized. 

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