The almost 200,000 refugees from many African countries are angry and traumatized not only by why they became refugees, but also by the conditions in Kakuma Refugee Camp. This results in numerous conflicts, sometimes deadly, between people from the various countries. This project will embrace trauma healing, reconciliation, and non-violent conflict resolution workshops. Participants will include 20 to 25 people from the various countries residing in the camp attending the same workshop.
Refugees have always fled their homes due to deadly conflicts which is the first incident of trauma. Then escaping their homeland and the difficulty of being registered as an official refugee by UNHCR is the second incidentl of trauma. Lastly Kakuma is a semi-arid region without even grass to raise cattle. Life in the camp then becomes the third incident of trauma. This frequently leads to conflicts, even deadly ones, in the camp, particularly between refugees from different countries.
TCSC will conduct trauma healing/reconciliation and alternatives to violence workshops with refugees from the various conflicting countries. This will include outreach to the new Kalobeyei Refugee Camp for the newest arrivals from South Sudan, Burundi, and the DRC. Since conflicts also occur between the refugees and the local Turkana community, some workshops will be composed of half local people and half refugees. TCSC will be using local refugee facilitators that we have already trained.
These healing, reconciliation, and peace building activities will reduce trauma, grief, and anger plus teach participants to resolve problems non-violently. This will result in more peaceful interactions between the diverse populations in the camp. Moreover the workshops promote human understanding and friendships among the participants leading to inter national cooperation in response to the difficulties of living in the Kakuma and Kalobeyei Refugee Camps.
This project has provided additional documentation in a DOCX file (projdoc.docx).
