In telling this story, we hear the voices of the refugees. Fabien: a young man who will be given the opportunity to be “resettled,” meaning he’ll be permitted to leave the camp and go to a rich country. The Fishing in the Desert kids: they’re a group of young people who’ve launched an agricultural-aquacultural project that helps improve the refugees’ nutritional conditions.

From 2020 to mid-2022, the number of refugees in the world grew from 27.1 million to 32.5 million. According to UNHCR, in 2023 Kakuma is the largest refugee camp in the world, but there are three others in Kenya: these four camps are among the top 10 most populous on the planet. Tens of thousands of workers are employed all around the world on missions that often put their safety at risk.

In order to fully capture my journey to Kakuma, my own point of view wouldn’t suffice. I therefore decided to meet a few of the humanitarian aid workers in Kakuma and talk about the camp through their perspective, as inside observers.

KAKUMA: 270,000 people. The average length of stay in the camp is 26 years. Average temperature in Kakuma: 95 to 113 Fahrenheit, year round. The UNHCR gives refugees corrugated metal sheets so they can build their own homes. 84% of families in the camp have an insufficient water supply. 97% of the camp’s population cooks on wood or charcoal fires. 73% of households have no access to electricity.

In June 2022 I went to a refugee camp called Kakuma. I undertook this journey out of a need to rethink the meaning of my being in the world. What drove me to Kakuma—a reality completely different from my own—was an awareness of my privilege.

KAKUMA - FISHING IN THE DESERT, the podcast
by Laura Sicignano
produced by IIC Nairobi / Teatro Nazionale Genova
English translation © 2023 Alta L. Price