It’s the early afternoon in the Kalobeyei refugee settlement, northern Kenya, and Garang has just finished conducting his daily radio show. As a musician, he is known by his artist name Makali Mamba – which in Swahili means the fierce crocodile.
Garang was only a few months old when his parents fled the civil war in South Sudan. Now 22, he is interacting daily with the people who constantly arrive from several countries affected by war, tribal conflict and natural disasters in the region.
Garang invites fellow refugees to share their stories
Garang is on air for 3 hours every day with his youth show. Employed by refugee-led radio REF FM, which aims to:
- provide the community with up-to-date information
- discuss the most pressing issues for the community
He brings young people from the refugee and host communities into the small studio to discuss issues close to their hearts. The studio is right in Kalobeyei reception centre, where new arrivals are registered and provided with cooked food, water and various forms of support. Almost 70% are below 18 years old.
‘I focus on the opportunities for young people around here, my show is for Gen Z’,
says Garang.
‘To compile the show, every day after the programme I get out of the studio and start chatting to the young people in the community. They give me feedback on the day’s show and suggest ideas for the next one’.
Blending young and old from the successive waves of arrivals
One of the formats he uses is Throw Back Thursday when he invites a younger and an older member of the community to discuss life now and in the past. A poignant exercise in an area that has seen successive waves of arrivals since the establishment of the Kakuma refugee camp in 1992, and then of the Kalobeyei integrated refugee settlement in 2015. The sites host over 300,000 refugees and asylum-seekers.
Engaging with the community: local radio provides a lifeline to refugees and asylum-seekers
The community radio REF FM KK, that employs Garang and 7 other refugees-turned-radio-hosts, serves people from 26 different nationalities in the refugee camps of Kakuma, Kalobeyei and the surrounding host communities. With EU funding, Film Aid Kenya, a humanitarian organisation that teaches filmmaking and journalism skills in the refugee camps, runs the station as part of its larger network of refugee community radios.
Entirely produced and hosted by members of the communities, these radio stations:
- allow timely circulation of life-saving information
- prevent tensions
- promote social cohesion by giving space to the concerns of the communities
The latter is a key function in a community of refugees that is currently experiencing high levels of anxiety, due to reductions in services and food assistance, as well as the move to a new philosophy in the management of refugee camps adopted by the Kenyan Government, known as the Shirika plan, which will bring change to the way refugee services are delivered.
As needs grow and resources become scarcer, humanitarian aid remains a lifeline for refugees in Kakuma and Kalobeyei. The EU continues to stand by displaced communities, ensuring access to food, healthcare, education, and protection.
