After a morning of visiting the rest of the education classes and doing some project planning, Lyama took us to visit the women’s department of Faulu. The department exists to develop and enhance the social, economic and psychological wellbeing of the vulnerable women and girls of Kakuma refugee camp.
Faulu’s women empowerment programme is run by an inspiring lady from the Congo, by the name of Estha. She works together with her lovely assistant Mercy to educate and empower women within the camp. Estha mobilises women from the community to gather
together twice a month to discuss their challenges, to educate them about family planning and sexual health, and to try to empower them to become self-sustaining through small businesses.
Today these women discussed with us the challenges they face in Kakuma camp, and the hopes they have for becoming independent through Faulu’s programme. They were kind to share their stories with us, their struggles, their disappointments and their hopes. Many of the women have found that they do not have enough food to provide for their families, so they have had to resort to prostitution, or selling their children for early marriage in order to survive. Aside from the damaging affect this has on the women themselves, this contributes to the ongoing problem within the camp of the spread of STD’s, including HIV/AIDs. It also continues a cruel cycle whereby the women have more children that they cannot afford to provide for.
One of the programmes we really loved hearing about was what they call a “Merry-Go-Round” initiative. This is the epitome of team-work! The programme involves the women standing together as a community, together financially supporting one woman to begin her small business to get off her feet. When this lady is able to support herself she returns the profits to the community to support the next woman.
The businesses Estha and Faulu hope to start to further enable these women to become self-sustaining include hairdressing, tailoring, and permaculture. Many of the women are eager to learn or to use the skills they have already been taught, it is just a matter of getting some funding in to get them equipment to use!
Mercy helped translate much of the discussion into Sudanese.
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