- Mary came from South Sudan when she was 15, with her little brother who was 2. The rest of her family was killed and even Mary was shot in the head. At 18 years old, she is now in her last year of Primary School. She expressed immense gratitude for Kakuma, where she is able to eat and go to school.
- James arrived from South Sudan in 2014. He lost his whole family and arrived alone. When trying to reach the border with Kenya, he was stopped several time by Dinkas who were looking for Nuers (his tribe) to kill. He was lukcy not to have the forhead markings traditionally made on all Nuer boys, and pretended to be insane so they left him along.
- A holiday assignment to a student in their last year primary school
- A map of Africa displayed in the corrigated
Back at Hope Primary School today, we sat with the head teacher Mr. Simon Puot Pouth, to plan for how a single school library can accommodate the needs of over 5,000 students. We realized as we started this project that we will need to develop an innovative library program to allow all the students at the school and equal chance to use the library. Mr. Puot Pouth estimated that over 50% of the school is composed of unaccompanied minors, children who arrived at the refugee camp without any parents or guardians. Education is truly their only ticket to a better life, if they choose to take advantage of it. We agreed on a schedule for the library, the location where the container will be placed, and who will run it. We also spent time expanding on the book list, and sat with several students to hear their stories and ask for their recommendations, so that we can tailor the library as much as possible to their needs and interests.