Kakuma is a kind of huge internment camp where refugees spend days, months and years with no possibility of escape. 80% of the refugees are children and young people. For the Salesians there are therefore 150,000 young people to be educated, evangelized and kept occupied.
The different backgrounds of the refugees tell the story of the African tragedy: there are refugees fleeing the tribal wars in South Sudan and the struggle for independence of the Nuba people and the people of Darfur in Sudan. There are others trying to escape political persecution in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia or from the Eritrean dictatorship. Still others are fleeing social and political insecurity in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo or civil war and fundamentalism in Somalia.
In this world of African suffering the Salesians have been present with a community from the beginning, from 1992. They are the only organization that lives permanently in the camp. They coordinate three vocational training centres with about 400 students in eight classes, taught mostly by past pupils of the Salesian centres in Nairobi, Embu and Makuyu.
With nearly 1,000 children and adolescents the Salesians have launched the Savio Club, a place where the children receive extra classes in the afternoon (needed because the camp schools are of low quality, with more than 100 children per class) and they have the possibility of further extracurricular activities for a holistic education. Then there is a large youth centre involving many young people especially at the weekend. It's just a big field with two trees, a fence and a sign saying "Don Bosco Youth Centre". The rest is creativity and imagination typical of a Salesian oratory.
The Good News is proclaimed through 47 Small Christian Communities - nuclei formed by Christian families - and eight chapels scattered across the camp, coordinated by the Salesian parish of the Holy Cross. The Congregation of the Missionaries of Charles de Foucauld helps a lot in this precious service.
The community has many dreams and projects: a technical school to perfect the training of young people, a youth centre with sports fields and halls, a marching band to brighten the days, a house for employees and volunteers, etc.
But in this colourful and troubled group of people there is one thing of great importance and it is education for coexistence. In the camp the Dinka and the Nuer of South Sudan play together; Muslims and Christians are studying side by side; Ethiopians with Burundians, Rwandans with Eritreans ... Young people learn to know, value and respect each other, and to live together.
And they are preparing to be seeds of reconciliation and communion in their various countries.
