Around 185,000 people live in Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp, and many were born there. The goal of SDC’s “Skills 4 Life” project is to harness the camp residents’ economic potential. Swisscontact is implementing the project on-site. The refugees, along with Kakuma region residents, can attend courses to learn technical skills in various vocational fields. In addition, they learn urgently needed life skills.
President of the Swiss Confederation impressed with the Skills 4 Life Project
The President visited the project because he wanted to grasp the refugee situation first-hand. After a glimpse, he has this to say “I am very impressed with what I have seen. The refugee situation is not only of national or regional concern but of global interest too. We are also concerned in Switzerland. We cannot do the work you are doing here but we can show our support.”
The Skills 4 Life approach focuses specifically on local market opportunities and helping project participants generate income with the skills they’ve learned. Then for example they can sew clothing, repair mobile phones and computers or motor vehicles.
In 2017, 1,484 people (63% of whom were women and 51% refugees) participated in technical training courses in various professions.
