Giving Children in Dadaab Refugee Camps Access to Education

BFA Container Captains Abdullahi Mire and Louis Brownstone recently arrived in Kenya to distribute 22,000 books to the schools and children of the Dadaab refugee camps! They worked with a vast network of professionals and community representatives, including Sahra Noor, the sister of Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar, to distribute books to schools throughout the camps.

Dadaab is the site of the world's third largest housing complex, hosting over 200,000 registered refugees at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) base. Container Captain Abdullahi Mire was, himself, a former resident of the Dadaab camps. Mire went on to form the Dadaab Book Drive (DBD), a Kenya-based organization with the goal of improving educational opportunities, resources and mentoring for young refugee students and their families.  The organization is made up of refugees, like Mire, who beat the odds to succeed. They believe it is a universal right for children to have access to quality education.

Although DBD did a smaller campaign in March 2019, this was their first time partnering with Books For Africa. With the support of UNHCR and Kenyan government leaders, they are working to get the books into the hands of students across all the camps. As Sahra Noor tweeted earlier this year, "As a former refugee who went four years without seeing a book, let alone reading it, I'm happy to help get books to Dadaab camp in 2019."

The goal of this shipment was to form the first working library in the Dadaab camps. You can follow along with ongoing news not only here on the BFA website, but also at the Dadaab Book Drive Twitter account, which features a video of their recent distribution efforts!

Check out our photo album below for more photos!