It’s the largest refugee camp in the world, and home to some of the most resilient people I’ve ever met. Many have walked through fiery experiences, emerged strong, and are now rebuilding their lives one day at a time. And for several thousands attending schools in Kakuma, education is their change to re-write their destiny.

Last October, I was in Kakuma for two days shooting images for BASF, the world’s leading chemical company.

Every year, BASF employees give part of their pay towards an agreed cause. In 2017, they decided to support education and sporting activities in Kakuma. I was called upon to create communication collateral for the campaign and give them a true picture of what education and sports are like in Kakuma.

After receiving the security and administrative clearance required to shoot in Kakuma, I hopped on a plane and made my way to Mogadishu Primary School.

I started in a standard 3 classroom where a Mathematics lesson was ongoing.

The hunger for education was evident with pupils seating on the floor of the packed classrooms. In the absence of desks, pupils use their laps to support their books when taking notes.Despite these setbacks, learning continues.A few classrooms away was this Standard 5 class. It was equally full but with desks and chairs for the pupils.

Here, learning is fun in class……and outside class.

Before break was over, we returned to class for some more portraits.

Next, I visited Angelina Jolie Primary School, still within Kakuma. As the name suggests, it was built with the support of the Hollywood A-lister.

There I met Judy, a standard 7 pupil. She told me she’d like to be a pilot.

I tried to make a call to a female pilot friend of mine who flies for KQ so she could encourage her but the phone network didn’t cooperate.

I hope they’ll meet one day.

This was the first time I saw pupils using tablets for e learning in Kakuma.

With sports being one of the activities BASF intended to support, I waited for games time to catch a volleyball match between two classes.

Kalobeyei is a master-planned settlement a few kilometres north of Kakuma. Here, refugees and the host community live as one. Kalobeyei was set up after Kakuma surpassed it’s capacity and after negotiations with the National and County Governments, and the host community.

This is one of the standard 5 classes in Kalobeyei Primary School.

And this is Teresa, a standard 5 pupil.

The images I shared with the BASF communications team were used to create collateral that was used to fund raise to support education and sports in Kakuma.

Over 1.28 million Euros (approx. Kshs150 million) was raised.

That, my friends, is the humbling power of photography.