As one of the oldest protracted refugee situations in the world, Kakuma refugee camp is keeping its history for 24 years with 180,000 population of 21 nationalities.
In addition, with high influx of South Sudanese refugees caused by the ongoing domestic conflict since December 2013, Kakuma refugee camp has already exceeded its capacity to accommodate. And this substantial numbers of new arrivals lead insufficient humanitarian assistance in the camp across sectors to more impoverished lives of refugees.
Good Neighbors International (GNI) has conducted an assessment mission and continuous discussions with UNHCR to respond to the increased needs in Kakuma last year. As a result, Good Neighbors Kakuma Program is launched in 2015.
In a bid to improve residential environment, GNI rolled out the shelter construction project for the prolonged refugee situation as its first phase. This shelter construction project benefits 215 protracted refugee families who have resided in Kakuma more than 20 years by providing construction materials and constructing T-Shelters. This project was enabled by KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency) Humanitarian Partnership Program.
Based on the successful launch of its first shelter construction project, GNI will implement the second shelter construction project coming May, and plan to expand its assistance spectrum in Kakuma to education and child protection in a long term.
GNI is an international humanitarian and development organization. It has made great strides in its mission by providing people around the world with a better quality of life since its establishment in Korea, 1991. GNI was granted General Consultative Status with the UN ECOSOC in 1996 and acknowledged its contribution and granted the “MDGs Award’ in 2007.