A burning afternoon in a place full of opportunities for life changing opportunities, An afternoon that reduced a room of excellence for young and brilliant refugees. August 8th around 3pm witnessed an uncertain fire tragedy at the Solidarity initiative for refugees centre In Kakuma that burnt to ashes one of the facility’s classrooms.
According to sources, one of the guards heard a massive battery explosion while sitting in his guarding room. Contrary to an interview by Nawezaa Media’s Jean Marie with one of the Co-Founder Jessy Inga ,the solar system that supports the centre had a failure on the power controller which could have stopped batteries from charging. It is believed that the batteries had overcharged and the surge happened. Much is still uncertain but further investigations are underway.
The terrific blaze inflicted enormous loss of property assets including 3D printers, metal casting equipment, furniture, chargers, projection smart TV 50 inches and many more items. Luckily enough there were no human casualties.
“For now we are just speechless. We will try to see how we can reconstruct the class and get more support to have our operation running” Jessy Stated.
“We remain with one classroom, we will use it because we cannot close doors, we will use the remaining available resources to continue our community support…” Added Jessy , with a sight of determination to bounce back and great enthusiasm to support the vulnerable refugees in the camp.
The Centre runs programmes like computer basics, intermediate and advanced that combines web development and app designs. Life skills dealing with intercultural skills, integration in the community and basic financial Literacy. Online education with Access to extracurricular activities and tertiary courses. 3D printing courses, plastics and metal casting. Apart from Education the center offers mentorship programmes where students are linked with people in line of work in courses they pursue, they get to be exposed to the sense of learning in a real world set up.
While the loss and damage can just remain as a setback for now , what is clear from the organization is how to bounce back, especially the tragedy happening in a period where everybody in the world is battling the enormous effects of the covid19 pandemic. Nevertheless ,the Organization further called for holistic support from potential well wishers in terms of charitable donations and financial funding to help the youths learn and change their lives by revival of the shaken initiative .
“Education, both formal and Informal is really precious at Kakuma due to limited opportunities at the camp. That room has been helping several youths to gain knowledge and learn about what they aspire to be and/or to do..
We will be grateful for any support that can be provided to get the activities resume at the centre for us to support the community…”, Jessy further alluded.
Some of the necessities needed include a classroom, power system, laptop chargers, internet connectivity system, tables, chairs, projector or smart TV and fans.
Solidarity Initiative for Refugees is looking forward to standing back on its feet and boisterously supporting the shining refugees students who are compelled for change through education. This center is a star to them and the star should as always keep shining.
SIR are reachable through the following contact details , should you need to speak, engage or offer support:
#Togetherinkeepingthestarshining #SIR #solidaritywithrefugees
