Kenya

CVT opened its doors in Kakuma in 2018, a desert town located in Kenya’s northwestern Turkana County. Our clinicians in the region now provide counseling, psychological first aid and, uniquely in a camp setting, physiotherapy to refugees in and around the Kakuma refugee camps. 180,000 refugees and asylum seekers – many of whom hail from South Sudan – now call the Kakuma region home. They’ve endured hardship and loss, even torture. The demand for CVT’s healing care is immense. As clinicians continue to meet underserved needs in the area, they’re also celebrating the milestones CVT Kakuma’s achieved.

The traditional image of refugees living in overcrowded tented camps is gradually changing. In reality, half of the world’s refugees live in urban areas. Nairobi is home to tens of thousands of refugees who fled violence, conflict and personal persecution. They choose the city over a camp in the hope they will find safety and more economic opportunity. But too often they are victims of harassment, assault and dire poverty.

CVT’s program of care in Nairobi was reduced in 2021, and we now extend care to a smaller number of refugees there. Refugees from countries in the Great Lakes region of Africa, as well as Somalia, choose to live in Nairobi for many reasons. Some hope for more job prospects or might have friends or family in the city who can provide assistance. They may have left a refugee camp because it lacked education opportunities or adequate medical care, violence in the camps or discrimination at the hands of other refugees or local authorities.

Refugees in Nairobi are largely impoverished and live in very low-income neighborhoods. Many of the refugees we provide care to do not have refugee status from the UN refugee agency, making it extremely difficult for them to access needed services. As a result, they are extremely vulnerable. Despite the hardships of life as an urban refugee and traumatic past experiences, there is no in-depth mental health trauma care available to them.

CVT’s care is based on our international healing initiatives. This includes an emphasis on high quality mental health care for survivors of torture and trauma. It also emphasizes training national staff to develop mental health and physical therapy resources that will benefit the community for the long term.