Turning dreams into projects: Lavie’s story
Lavie was forced out of Congo before he had a chance to finish secondary school. Like so many young people who arrive in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya’s arid northern territories seeking sanctuary, he was told that he had to go back to primary school. He was 22 at the time.
Without fluency in English or a high school diploma, already scarce opportunities in the camp become even more limited. So when the chance to join Amala came up, Lavie didn’t hesitate to apply, and became part of the first cohort of Global Secondary Diploma students in Kakuma Camp in 2021.
“I am grateful for what Amala did for me personally - it helped me change my ways of thinking, and I learnt how to change dreams into a project.”
Learning about ethical leadership and peacebuilding were pivotal moments for Lavie. “When there’s peace, there’s everything”, he says. “When I was taught about how to build peace in the community, it supported me to become a primary school teacher. Resolving conflict not only between children, but also between teachers”.
After Amala, Lavie volunteered to support Changemaker Course students for six months, where he gained skills in how to support learners. “That helped me to become a teacher”, says Lavie. He started working in a primary school in the camp, responsible for huge classes of up to 140 students. Lavie was shocked by the challenges refugee learners face in schools in Kakuma. He resolved to try his best to tackle the issue. “Learners of today are the teachers of tomorrow. We have to be educated to educate others”.
With the experience from teaching combined with the knowledge of how to transform his dream into a project that he’d gained at Amala, Lavie started ACWA - Arise Community Welfare Access. The project runs in Kakuma 2, and empowers refugee youth, orphans and disabled people. There are 12 people on the team, Lavie’s friends from Kakuma. They teach children, many of whom are orphans, English and Swahili, as well as feed them and teach them about agriculture. It links directly to Lavie’s graduation project - the Personal Interest Project - that he worked on during the Global Secondary Diploma programme which was about starting a school.
Lavie explains the difficulties and the joys seeing the impact of ACWA’s work: “we now have a space, but construction was a challenge. There are no taps. No toilets and no office. But six kids have written stories about studying with us, their improvements, and how they are taken care of. I feel excited when I see how they are progressing”.
“The leadership skills I developed at Amala supported my way of being. I used them as a primary school teacher, and then again with leading my team. I am leading the whole project, so without the Ethical Leadership skills I learnt, I don’t think I would be able to.”