In Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, communication is a lifeline and educator

In 2011, just before her ninth birthday, Nira Ismail arrived with her family at Kakuma, a refugee camp in Kenya, a fact that alone should have weakened and demoralized anyone. 

Indeed, the thousands of Sudanese refugees like her then, and also today, face both imaginable and unimaginable hardships: hunger, disease, slim economic and educational opportunities.  

Established in 1992, the Kakuma camp became home to thousands of unaccompanied minors and others fleeing war in South Sudan and Sudan. Refugees from Somalia and other camps in Ethiopia, as well as from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Rwanda followed. Located in Kenya's second poorest region, tensions between camp residents and the local community, as well as among refugees from various ethnic groups who are often at war in their home countries, have sometimes resulted in violence. Kakuma today is home to more than 280,000 refugees. 

But since her arrival, Ismail has found a way to make life in Kakuma not only bearable for herself and others, but to highlight the ways in which hope and opportunity exist alongside hardship in the camp. As one of 18 community reporters with Sikika, a community-based audio platform supported by DW Akademie, Ismail reports on refugees like her, their everyday problems and perils – and possible solutions.  

Nira Ismail is a community reporter at Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, where she gathers and shares practical information for listener groups and new arrivals to the camp.

She also researches and publishes practical information: understanding citizenship applications and requirements, disinformation and scams, educational and work opportunities, not to mention critical information on food distribution, the weather, and where best to fetch water.

Informing and participating 

Part of Ismail's responsibilities include listening and responding directly to audiences in the camp. Sikika employs an approach whereby refugees, as part of listening groups, let aid agencies know what they need. 

"The people who produce content for the Sikika programs are community members," said Aarni Kuoppamäki, who oversees DW Akademie's regional displacement program. "They know what works well in their neighborhood, what problems people are having and what information they need. So, the community sets the agenda. And the Sikika team discusses those issues with humanitarian organizations who provide essential services like food distribution and education to the community." 

Refugees at Kakuma can be easily given to despair. Ismail encourages them to look for ways to both survive and thrive.

"There’s fear and not knowing out there," said Ismail, "and sometimes it's exhausting to deal with that. But there are also 300 listening groups in Kakuma, so people do want to learn more." 

She produces a 30-45-minute audio program every other week for the listening groups throughout the camp, as well as for the surrounding host community. 

Everybody works 

When Ismail left the Nuba Mountains of Sudan, she was with her stepmother and nine siblings, two of whom are younger than her. She lives with all of them still and said that everybody has found some meaning and has goals. 

"Four of my siblings have gotten scholarships to study," she said, in areas like civil engineering, computer science and IT. "Everybody works. My stepmother makes soap." 

The Kakuma Refugee Camp is home to 280,000 refugees from Sudan, South Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The organization Sikika offers audio programs to keep refugees informed of aid, refugee status applications and opportunities for work and education.

Now age 24, Ismail can be proud of her publishing portfolio which includes significant stories most journalists would be hard pressed knowing where to begin. There was a report on how women can get water without facing male harassment. There have been malaria and cholera outbreaks which she gingerly braved reporting, and stories about how climate change has led to meager food harvests and water sources. She has chronicled depression among camp residents and how refugees from throughout Africa, speaking many different languages, find common ground. 

And yet, she said that had her earlier life been different, she would be more satisfied. She noted that although she studied mass communication and media studies, with the help of a scholarship, in Nairobi in 2019, she had to return to Kakuma because, as a refugee, she does not enjoy the right to free movement in Kenya. 

"I have no work permit," she said with a measure of resignation. "And even though I had a lucky chain of events, getting the scholarship, I'm not where I should, or could, be in terms of career and also wages." 

It's up to you 

She meanwhile takes her own advice: to look for nearby, accessible opportunities, and to help where she can. Everyone, including herself, she said, wishes for a better future. It strikes her that so many of the refugees and asylum-seekers that she meets had professions and status before they fled their homelands, unlike her own journey undertaken as a child.  

When she arrived at Kakuma, she was almost nine years old. At 24 now, she hopes for a career in journalism while continuing to support and help fellow refugees.

"These people have skills," she said. "They are capable. They just need a chance." She seeks out new arrivals to Kakuma, to welcome them and find out what they want and need. "Much of it is basic information, like integrating, food distribution," she said. "I introduce them around." 

And oftentimes, when the time is right, she offers some encouragement. "I say to them, don't despair," she said. "I tell them that things will get better and that we – Sikika – are here to help."

The audio platform "Sikika" provides reliable local information for about 283,000 people living in and around Kakuma refugee camp. FilmAid Kenya and DW Akademie established the platform in 2020. It is now a joint production between Kenya's COME Initiative and DW Akademie to improve communication between refugees, the host community and humanitarian organizations that provide basic services like food support, health care and education. It is supported by Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.