An aerial view shows recently constructed houses at the Kakuma refugee camp in Turkana District, northwest of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, June 20, 2015. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya – GF10000134334

As many of you know, I recently retired from full time work and am now devoting my time to volunteer work and philanthropy that supports refugees. In a post I wrote a few weeks ago, my own experience as a refugee for 10 months in 1990-91 has given me a different and more empathic relationship with people forced from their homes due to war or natural disasters. Today’s blog is about two projects that I donated to in Kakuma camp, northwestern Kenya. Why Kakuma camp? And what are the projects? Read further to find out more.

During the summer of 2018, I found out about a pilot course for refugee teachers offered by the Carey Institute for Global Good- Center for Learning in Practice . I signed up along with a dozen other teachers from around the globe. The course materials were very interesting, but I especially liked the discussion forum where we had a chance to respond to our learning and contextualize it for our particular situations. During these asynchronous discussions, I had a chance to learn more about the other teachers who taught in Kakuma camp, northern Syria, and other locations.

After completing the course in July 2018, we kept in touch through a WhatsApp group with sporadic messages of greetings or sharing updates about our circumstances. During one of those exchanges, Honore, a teacher from Kakuma camp mentioned that he was hoping to find someone, or a group of people to donate funds for 20 computers so that young people in the camp could learn the basics of digital literacy. Before replying, I decided to find out more about Kakuma. Below are some basic facts related to this camp in northwestern Kenya.

Kakuma refugee camp was established in 1992 by the UNHCR to house the Lost Boys of Sudan, about 20,000 children who were orphaned during Sudan’s second civil war. It was meant to be a temporary camp, but has now grown to nearly 200,000 refugees fleeing war and natural disasters in neighboring countries. The situation in the camp makes life difficult for residents to access the basic needs like food and shelter since they rely on UNHCR which relies on donations. The increasing number of refugees from South Sudan to Kakuma camp has stretched available resources and capacities, including those for education. The United Nations Association of the USA lists the following facts on it website (https://unausa.org/adopt-a-future/kakuma):

Education in Kakuma:
In some cases, the teacher to student ratio is 1:103.
15% of primary school-aged children are not in school.
70% of those children not in school are girls.
Many students share textbooks at a ratio of 1:7

After finding out about the urgent need for Honore to open his center (African Initiative for Human Development), I replied to him in a separate message and asked him to send me a proposal. The proposal consisted of a request for 20 laptops and materials to build a simple infrastructure for a classroom along with solar batteries to power the laptops. After considering the costs and how much I was able to fund, we decided to start with 10 laptops.

Building the center and providing solar panels for electricity. Hooking up the internet.

I was interested in supporting this project, but wanted to be sure we started with a reasonable amount that I could initially fund on my own and then look into other sources of funding/fundraising in the future. Honore has continued to update me with photos (Wakelet collection) and messages about the progress to purchase the computers and materials, hire teachers who had the expertise to train the students in the basics of using a laptop and MS Word. He told me he was able to register two groups of students in different age ranges and classes would meet every weekday afternoon for two hours each. Meanwhile, he would continue offering a course to a small group of students who wanted to learn about peacekeeping and conflict resolution.

Students in the AIHD Center learning about digital literacy and the basics of using a computer.

About one week after the students began, Honore messaged me again and told me that the internet was only available on their cell phones (if they had one) and that if the Center was provided with internet, he could offer a college level certificate courses to high school graduates who otherwise have no access to higher education. He sent me another proposal with a six month subscription to internet. I approved and he arranged for it to be hooked up within the week. The classes began in early September and students who completed the required coursework received their certificates on December 29th.

Some of the students who completed their courses in AIHD Center

After I received the message from Honore, another teacher in Kakuma camp named Kitala contacted me about a proposal to train young mothers as part of a six month hairdressing course. Such skills are in demand at the camp. He told me that training the women will allow them to become entrepreneurs and support themselves and their families. I reviewed Kitala’s proposal, suggested some modifications and then agreed to support the first group of 40 trainees. Kitala sends photos, videos, and reports to me regularly.

Students learning the latest hairdressing techniques by working on each other.

One of the first reports I received from Kitala mentioned that the children of the trainees didn’t have anyone to watch them during the daily classes. In this case, the mothers either left them unattended at home or brought them. This was very disruptive since the children were constantly asking for their mothers’ attention. Kitala asked if there was any way I could help him start a daycare near the training center. He needed toys and to hire a few women with prior experience to care for the 31 children.

Views of the children in day care playing with their new toys and games.

Kitala’s project (There is Hope Africa) still has a few months to complete, but during the Christmas holiday, some of the trainees asked if he could leave the center open, so their clients could have their hair and nails done!

Both projects are successful but need a broader base of funders and supporters. There is currently a chuffed.org fundraiser for the children in daycare to have breakfast. Also, Honore would like to add 10 more laptops in the center and be able to accommodate more students who can also learn basic skills of Microsoft products.

The link to view Honore’s proposal for increasing the capacity of AIHD Center.
https://wke.lt/w/s/8htMD-

Here is the link to the fundraiser to provide daily breakfast for the children in the day camp.
https://chuffed.org/project/giving-hope-to-women-and-children-in-kakuma-refugee-camp

Photo of rain and clouds in downtown Kuwait City
Source: http://www.wordsbycharles.com/2013/11/then-rain-rain-rain-came-down-down-down.html

It’s raining in the desert today. Kuwait has winters when it hardly rains at all, but this year it’s rained several times already. I am reminded about “perspective” when I rains. You might wonder what rain has to do with how I view life, so I will start with a small example.
I grew up in Buffalo, New York where rain is quite common and can continue for days on end.

When I was a child, I used to sing, “rain, rain, go away, come again another day” because it was quite dark and dreary to have it rain day after day. In Kuwait, it hardly rains, so I was amazed when I heard family members saying, “Congratulations, it is raining”. Now that I have lived here for 35 years, I can see how important that rain is. If we have a good season with lots of rain starting in November, the desert plants bloom in the spring, and truffles, a rare and expensive delicacy, are abundant. At first, I felt rather sad when it rained since I was so happy to have sunny days, every day. But then I realized how important it is to a dry desert climate and to people who used to struggle without fresh water. Kuwait imported water from Iraq before the first desalination plant was built in the early 1960s. My perception of rainy weather began to change once I understood its significance. I changed my perception of rainy days from feeling gloomy to feeling blessed. I also congratulated everyone when it rained.

This made me realize that we CAN change our perceptions. A post on the website Mind Your Reality (https://www.mind-your-reality.com/change_your_perception.html) deals with “bow to neutralize past negative experiences”. We can do so by “changing your perspective which really means to “see” something from a different vantage point, through different eyes”. Reflecting on the experience, thinking about it in a more positive way, and observing how much better you feel will lead to more satisfaction in your life.

Lately, I have seen many posts on social media about kindness and feeling grateful. These are two excellent ways to change your perspective. For instance, I can wake up in the morning and dread going to work, or I can wake up and feel grateful that I have a job that allows me to have a positive effect on the lives of others including my students and colleagues. I follow Leanora Benton @leanorabenton3 and @gratefuledu64 on Twitter. Their posts lift my spirits and remind me to be thankful for what I have. I am grateful for having them and my PLN in my life.

Remember, it’s all about how we perceive what is happening/what has happened in our life.

The Deception of Perception: Know that everything you experience in life is in itself neutral. It is your perception that labels your experiences as good or bad, positive or negative, happy or sad in accordance with your beliefs, which themselves are a product of your perception of your past experiences. Perception, therefore, can be very misleading because it colours your experiences and reinforces your beliefs, irrespective of whether they serve you or not. (Source: https://www.mind-your-reality.com/negative_experiences.html)