Africa-Forward: Collaborating with Kakuma Refugee Camp

Posted by Mary Bosibori on

It’s very important for us to not just create beautiful, quality accessories, but to also actively seek out other ways that we can contribute positively to our community, local and global. In that vein, we’ve been collaborating with Kakuma Refugee Camp, in the Turkana District in northern Kenya.

At present, the camp is home to approximately 85,000 refugees from Somalia, Ehtiopia, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Uganda and Rwanda. They are not permitted to grow crops or keep livestock and without these means to earn a livelihood, they depend on food donations from USAID. There are plenty of these sacks at the camp and when Mairo Retief, a Lutheran World Foundation project coordinator working in Kakuma, saw our recycled bags at last year’s Xmasbox fair in Nairobi, it sparked a great idea …

Adele Dejak collaboration at Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya
Participants at Kakuma
Adele Dejak collaboration at Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya
The raw material
Adele Dejak collaboration at Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya
George demonstrates
Adele Dejak collaboration at Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya
Participants get a hold of the process
Adele Dejak collaboration at Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya
George demonstrating some more
Adele Dejak collaboration at Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya
One of the finished articles
Adele Dejak collaboration at Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya
Esther with some of the participants

Mairo got in touch with us about collaborating with residents at Kakuma, training them how to make bags out of the USAID sacks. These bags will be sold (including at our boutiques) and provide much-needed incomes for the residents. We did not have any second thoughts about contributing to this great initiative!

Esther and George from our team (above in the black logo t-shirts) recently made the first trip to Kakuma – they braved the gruelling 40 degree weather but had a wonderful time nonetheless. They worked with tailors at Kakuma who were very eager to learn these new skills.

Not only will these new skills help Kakuma residents to earn a livelihood but, the whole experience has also helped to boost morale and give the participants an added sense of purpose.

Stay tuned for updates from our future trips.

Africa-forward Category_Africa-Forward Category_Our World community Kakuma Refugee Camp Kenya training

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