Excitement as Kenya's Kakuma camp hosts world's first TEDx in a refugee camp

david nganga

June 9, 2018 1:08 PM

More than 250 high profile guests are attending the conference

More than 250 high profile guests have gathered at Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, venue of the

TEDxKakumaCamP seeks to offer a different lens into the reality of life as a refugee, away from the images of devastation and suffering, and towards stories of resilience, of contribution, of creativity.

Speakers at the event include current and former Kakuma Camp refugees as well as international experts and artists who wish to transform how we respond to people forced to flee their homes.

"We have refugee speakers who have never spoken on this kind of a global platform before," said co-organizer Dana Hughes.

"They've really started to believe in themselves. It's been incredible to watch them gain confidence to come to the point where they can share their stories on a world-class stage."

The Kakuma camp, set up in 1992, currently hosts nearly 200,000 refugees from South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Burundi, the DRC, Eritrea, Uganda and Rwanda.

The event has gained huge traction online and here are some tweets from Saturday's proceedings:

[No available link text]