Wasatch High Schoolers Gavin Daley, Matt Blood, Hayden Heimburger and Sadie Omer are teaming up to support refugees who live in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwestern Kenya.
It’s one of the largest refugee camps in the world, with around 300,000 residents. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the camp was established in 1992 and most who live there are originally from Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia.
The Wasatch students are partnering with Kakuma Co, a Salt Lake City-based company aiming to provide another income source for refugees. According to the company, about 80% of refugees struggle to find stable employment and opportunities to support their families. They also face barriers, like lack of resources and marketplaces to sell products.
Kakuma tries to breach that gap by providing a platform for entrepreneurs to sell goods as well as provide materials.
Blood said he and the other students are developing new products the refugees can make and helping them sell the items.
“We're trying to sell to U.S. markets, trying to expand their market, because they're actually getting a pretty good source of income within the refugee camp, but there's just not a lot of means of purchasing,” he said.
The partnership is through the Wasatch Center for Advanced Professional Studies, or CAPS. The Wasatch County School District program connects local businesses with students to help them develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills through real-world projects.
Blood and Heimburger are in the engineering department of CAPS. They are designing a pre-water filter meant to filter large sediments, leaves and other material from water. The filter would then be combined with a bacterial filter.
Heimburger said this part of the project is in partnership with Water for Life Charity.
“They were originally getting their pre-filters out of China, but because of the tariffs and stuff, it's been too expensive,” he said. “So we're hoping to be able to start creating them in the refugee camp, where they can outsource it directly from Kakuma Co, and that would be able to basically generate cheaper products and generate revenue for those refugees.”
Daley is in the CAPS business and marketing department, while Omer is in the graphic design department. Daley said they are working with Kakuma refugees to design and sell jewelry, which is a bestseller.
“They have a bunch of different colors of bracelets, necklaces and anklets, and we were tasked with the tagging for shipping it,” he said. “They're actually wonderful at making stuff. They can make anything from chairs to soccer balls, basically anything that doesn't involve plastic or metal, just by hand.”
Blood said the group has been corresponding with refugees to collaborate on designs and materials. He said he’s excited about the project as it has a tangible impact.
“It just it feels so important to help these people,” Blood said. “I feel like we're actually making a real impact in some of these people's lives and really trying to help them develop the means to have a better life.”
Heimburger and Daley agreed. Daley said he got involved with this CAPS project because he gets national and international business and marketing experience, but the real pull was helping out people in need.
