Music production in Kakuma Refugee Camp
Hello!
I've made this on behalf of my friend Fidele at Season of the Time Media Production.
I invite you to empower the talented young adults and children in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya through music production.
Your donation will cover the costs of setting up a music studio with recording equipment. This will allow the kids and young adults in the camp to express themselves through the new mediums: music and music production.
"Kakuma Refugee Camp has been here since 1991. That year, thousands of youngsters who later came to be known as the Lost Boys of Sudan escaped over the border from South Sudan, leaving behind years of brutal civil war. The ones who survived built what they thought would be temporary shelters. Twenty-five years later, some of them are still here, joined by legions of others fleeing violence, unrest and repression in countries around the region.
The camp, a sprawling collection of tents and crumbling mud and corrugated iron huts, is not an easy place to live. During the day, temperatures soar. There is little to do. In the morning, most kids cram into airless classrooms with up to 200 other children. After school, some help their families by going to fetch water or firewood. Mostly, children idle away their time, hanging out in the narrow alleyways between huts, finding creative ways to play with whatever they get their hands on. Some have never known life outside the camp; many will wait years or even decades to be resettled.
In 2011, a 19-year-old Congolese refugee named Jean Michelle Batakane returned to the camp after studying at the East African Media Institute in Nairobi…"
“I moved back after realizing that a multitude of people like myself were anxious to learn,” says Batakane, “and that I could do my part by sharing my knowledge.”
He also saw an opportunity to “bring together refugee brothers and sisters from different parts of the camp,”. And thus, Season of the Time Media Productions was born!
Season of the Time educates young people from Congo, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda — and all religious backgrounds.
It is revolutionary, community-building, creative and empowering.
They now want to produce and perform music about daily life in Kakuma and African culture. But we just don’t have the money to buy the equipment. Any donation will mean the world to us.
You can follow Season of the Time on Facebook and hear the songs your donation will empower the kids to create: https://www.facebook.com/Seasonofthetime/
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Quotes from Megan Iacobini de Fazio and Jean Michelle Batakane. Narratively article; “Meet the Teenagers Who Started a Film Production Studio in Their Refugee Camp” (2017)