- Financial support and counseling of a refugee-led NGO to operate a computer centre in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya
- Offering courses in basic and advanced computer skills as well as life skills and female empowerment
I. What is our story?When we first travelled to
Kakuma refugee camp in 2017, we were shocked: 200,000 people who had fled war and persecution from surrounding countries live here, in the middle of the
Kenyan desert. But even though living conditions are extremely hard, many people in Kakuma were brimming with
confidence,
courage and
motivation! We met
refugees who
selflessly offered computer courses to other residents and dreamed of having their own computer centre. Enthused by their activism and convinced that
education is the most
sustainable form of self-help, we decided to support them. Together, we drew up plans for a computer centre and a curriculum for computer courses. Today, about
250 refugees take part in our
courses every month and the small group of computer-loving refugees has become our reliable partner, the NGO
Solidarity Initiative for Refugees (SIR) (in the video above, SIR's programme leader Deline shows you our computer centre).
At the heart of our programme is the "Code Dust" course, which teaches advanced programming skills. The students of this course are accompanied by programming experts from all over the world, selected by us, as mentors. We place particular emphasis on achieving gender balance among the participants of our courses.
II. How do we use your donation?Recently, the technical defect of a battery caused a
fire. Fortunately, there were no casualties. But the damage was severe since
one of our two classrooms burnt down. Through this appeal for donations, we want to finance the
reconstruction. We will do this in
collaboration with local partners to create economic opportunities within the refugee camp. Furthermore, we seek your support in covering the
running costs of the center.
More information is also available on our
website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our chairman Leon (leon.birck@source-network.org).