Kakuma Update

Sally Jackson FiLiA trustee.

It’s with sadness, anger and frustration that we have to inform you of the death of another little girl in Kakuma Refugee camp. On the 19th March, four-year-old Favour became ill and was vomiting. We all believe this was related to the extremely poor diet provided by UNHCR. When we started work in Kakuma in 2020, refugees were provided with rice, soya beans, maize and oil; now they are given sogrum, a product most often used as animal feed in the UK. After a sleepless night, and with the local UNHCR clinic refusing to help lesbian families, she sadly died the next morning.

Her mum, Namusoke Blessing, described Favour as a bright four-year-old, who was doing well with her learning and loved playing games and watching cartoons before they had to flee Uganda due to the homophobia and abuse. In Kakuma, as she could speak English and Luganda and had also learnt a little Kiswahili, she played with other children of gay parents. But she still faced abuse from the other adults and children in the camp because of having a lesbian mum.

As you can imagine her mum and family are distraught, on top of the grief there is the daily struggle to feed themselves and the rest of their family and somehow now the additional expenses of a burial. Please send your love to her family, and if you are able to help, you can donate here.