Nils' Travels to Kakuma, Kenya

Looking back on 2023, the highlight of my year was visiting some of the people Jangala has connected to the internet in Kakuma, home to some of the world’s largest refugee camps in a remote corner of northern Kenya. Here’s a short journal of my time there…

The first thing that hit me was the heat. It’s only an hour flight from Nairobi but 10-15 degrees hotter. It was pushing 40 most of the days that I was there. The airport is small so I’m out in about 5 minutes and find Abdi, my driver, waiting for me in the car park. 

We drive up through Turkana country and I take in the sights. It’s great to see the tribal Turkana people in their villages as we drive. The houses are mostly mud huts and the people living there are dressed in traditional tribal clothing. As we get closer to the camp we come to road blocks that we have to stop for. Short conversations in Swahili happen between Abdi and the police and we’re through quickly, entering the hustle and bustle of Kakuma town. 

The difference between Kakuma town and the small Turkana villages we’ve been driving through is massive. Kakuma is busy and noisy with people and motorbikes everywhere. You instantly notice the diversity of the different nationalities - thousands of people from 19 different nations live here. 

I settle in to my hotel and meet Mohammed, who works with one of Jangala's project partners, Rescue Wing. Mohammed is going to be my guide while I’m in Kakuma.

Nils (left) with Rescue Wing Guide Mohammed (right), at the hotel on day one

Rescue Wing is a local NGO empowering and educating women and girls about their rights in order to make a positive impact in the community.

I organised to visit quite a few different projects during my short few days in Kakuma and my first stop was the Faulu Productions compound in Kakuma 1. Faulu is a non-profit community based organisation working to strengthen livelihoods of local residents through education, agriculture, Skills for Life and other community projects. It was founded in Kakuma refugee camp in 2015 by refugee youths from the DRCongo, Somalia and Sudan. 

From left: Ismail from Faulu, Nils and Mayen from Amala, at the Faulu Productions Centre

Here we meet Ismail, our contact at Faulu. Ismail shares their struggles with internet access, showing us a dusty, old Big Box first installed in 2020. The team told us that it was the best internet they’d used in their compound and were very excited to be receiving a new one. 

We’ve evolved through many versions of Big Box over the years - each product iteration has been informed by feedback from users in projects like this - to arrive at our latest version.

We also meet Mayen, the field coordinator for Amala, an education charity set-up to address the terrible statistics that only 41% of refugees are enrolled in secondary education and only 7% are able to access higher education. Amala’s name is inspired by the Arabic word for hope.

Classroom in session at the Faulu Productions Centre

Meeting Moses, who runs a project teaching coding with Raspberry Pi, is a highlight of my visit to Faulu. It was really great to witness the impact of ICT education within the camp in a project like the ones that Faulu are running. 

Towards the end of the day we make our way to Rescue Wing’s headquarters, which is located in a large UNHCR-run school. The school’s principal informs me that they have over 2,800 students and that Rescue Wing is making a difference by teaching ICT skills, mainly to women and girls. It’s brilliant to see the classroom in action and to witness some of the many young girls they teach learning ICT skills.  

Rescue Wing Classroom

The following day Mohammed takes me to meet another organisation that has just launched. (As is often the case with our projects, news of Big Box and its capabilities to connect to the internet spreads quickly by word of mouth.) They are very keen for internet connectivity and devices in their new classroom space which they are in the process of building. I promise to connect them to our projects team to see what we can do. 

Finally, we make our way to Kalobayei, the neighbouring camp, to meet Samuel from CIBL. The Community Initiative for Better Life (CIBL) runs Amala courses for displaced youths in social innovation, peace-building and STEM. 

The drive shows me the stark contrast between the two different camps. Kalobayei is composed of UN tents in rows and very much looks like a formal refugee camp whereas Kakuma is made up of ramshackle corrugated iron structures. 

We reach the CIBL compound and meet the team there. I spend some time setting up the new internet equipment and witness its immediate impact on the local community. Samuel is delighted with the new box. I leave with it working perfectly and look forward to hearing how they use it.

Nils and Samuel outside CIBL (Community For Better Life)

The journey to Kakuma was an eye-opening experience that reminded me of the importance of Jangala’s mission. It was great to see the impact that internet and connectivity has on the residents. As was the case back in the Calais Jungle when we started, the importance of connectivity and digital literacy was extremely evident. 

There are many, many more projects like the ones we work with in Kakuma and so many opportunities for us to do more work there. I believe this is just the beginning of the impact we can have in this incredible location. I imagine it will not be long until some of our team are back for another trip. 

I’m left feeling extremely grateful for the work of our project partners on the ground - and their gracious hospitality!  

Nils O’Hara, Jangala Co-Founder

January 2024

If you’d like to support Jangala’s mission to connect one million refugees to the internet as part of UNHCR’s Connectivity for Refugees initiative, please get in touch