Kenya-Kakuma #1: NOVEMBER 20 World Children’s Day
by Frank Dimmock
On this day in 1989, world leaders came together to make a commitment to children. Today marks the 30 years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The attention to child rights has transformed the lives of children around the world. It remains the most widely ratified rights treaty in history.
During the last 30 years, there has been more than a 50% reduction in the deaths of children under 5, and the proportion of children undernourished has been cut in half. BUT: 262 million children and youth are out of school and 650 million girls are married before their 18th birthday. There remains much work to do to help children reach their potential.
I am in the Kakuma Refugee camp in northwestern Kenya, surrounded by children. Five years of fighting in South Sudan has displaced 1/3rd of the country’s population (mostly women and children). Over 2.3 million have fled to neighboring countries.
The Outreach Foundation has been working with the Presbyterian Church of South Sudan (PCoSS) to reach many of its refugee members in Gambella, Ethiopia and Kakuma, Kenya. The forced displacement has been especially difficult for children and women. Outreach has been engaged in providing training in trauma healing in both areas. We held an advanced trauma healing training for 26 students of the Giffen Institute of Theology (GIT) who received the trauma healing materials in their language – Nuer. GIT is a training school of the PCoSS located in the Refugee camp. Students are refugees living in the 4 sections of the camp. They come from different geographic and ethnic areas of South Sudan and train for three years to receive a diploma in Theology.
I had the privilege of interviewing Hawida, a 20-year old single mom from the Nuba Mountains. Her story of leaving home and her Muslim family at age 14 and walking 10 days to reach Juba, then journeying further to Kakuma was amazing. Though she knew no one in the camp and there are few from her distant ethnic group of South Sudan, she found a Christian community and accepted Christ as her savior. She has a 4-year old daughter. She now sings in the choir in her Presbyterian congregation (one of 14 in the camp). God is good and the refugees here are faithful and remain hopeful. We often lean on His word from Romans 8, where we are reminded of God’s awesome love and promises. Through Him we are conquerors cannot be separated from His love.
Know His Love.
Frank Dimmock