In the context of conflict and displacement, peace constitutes a widely neglected topic in research debates. Especially, displaced people and their active contributions to peace are largely ignored therein. However, in our research in Kakuma in Kenya we explored various peace-related practices of displaced individuals. In this blog post, we place focus on collective efforts carried out in community-based organisations that form part of the peace activities we have identified. Using the example of the registered community-based organisation Easy Fitgang, we show how displaced people collectively tackle existing problems, create support systems and establish a sense of peace in the camp.
How do displaced people jointly create peaceful conditions in a camp environment? This question is at the core of our contribution in which we highlight how Easy Fitgang – a community-based organisation composed of both displaced people and local residents in Kenya – works to transform their surroundings, nurture mental well-being and foster peaceful interactions amid the challenges of camp life.
Living in protracted displacement of Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya means facing ongoing hardships and insecurities that often undermine a sense of peace. Many displaced people deal not only with the trauma of their past but also with daily struggles against structural limitations and threats of violence. Despite access to legal aid and basic necessities like food, shelter and health care, camp residents are confronted with a myriad of prevailing risks, sexual and gender based violence as well as restrictions evolving from the strict encampment policy of the Kenyan government. However, through collective efforts, these individuals are not just hopeful for a brighter and more peaceful future; they are actively shaping the present.
Community-based organisations as important actors in displacement situations
While the collaborative efforts of displaced people, and especially their forming of associations in response to protection challenges, structural barriers and persisting insecurities, has been underlined in various research contributions, their joint engagement for peace has been widely neglected. Studies show how their situated knowledge and in-depth insights into local conditions enable these organisations to provide direct and context-specific protection and assistance, offer solutions to problems confronted with in their communities and often fill the gaps left unaddressed by humanitarian aid organisations. But what about their contributions to peace? Generally, in scholarly debates around the conflict-displacement nexus, peace is mainly discussed with regard to its absence. Violent conflicts compel millions of individuals to flee their homes in search of safety, protection and peace in other locations. Ongoing insecurities and risks during flight that are largely continuing in exile, where encampment and restrictions are a reality for many, frequently prevent displaced individuals from attaining peaceful conditions, relegating it to a future hope.
In a research project, we studied the meanings of and practices for peace in the context of conflict-induced displacement. To place people’s perspectives at the core, we particularly explored displaced individuals’, and especially displaced women’s, own understandings of and practices for peace with, among others, a case study in Kakuma camp in Kenya. Kakuma is one of two large camps in Kenya located in the northwest of the country close to the borders of Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia. Its establishment dates back to the year 1992 when it was opened to provide protection to people forced to flee violent conflicts, insecurities and persecution in neighbouring countries. As reported by UNHCR, Kakuma camp’s and neighbouring Kalobeyei settlement’s current population stands at 297,258 as of 30 November 2024 – with people mainly coming from South Sudan, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo).
Our findings uncover a huge variety of displaced people’s peace perceptions and demonstrate the significance of individual and collective practices displaced people engage in to build peace, establish peaceful relations, solve conflicts, manage social togetherness and support others in the pursuit of peace. We particularly discovered how community-based organisations form a key part of joint efforts to foster peaceful conditions which is why we zoom into the peace-related practices of one in this text. To spotlight motivations of joint engagement and to illustrate collective agency, we focus on the activities of the refugee-led community-based organisation Easy Fitgang. This group has established itself as a space to address mental distress and the lack of peaceful relations in the camp, thereby developing joint responses with displaced individuals and members of the Kenyan host community. Our results are based on research carried out in Kakuma from September to November 2022. Next to our main method of data collection, ero-epic dialogues – an open and unstructured form of conversation – it is informal encounters with community-based organisations and on-going discussions with people living in Kakuma that build the basis for this blog post.
Displaced people’s engagement for everyday peace
In our exploration of displaced people’s contributions to peace in Kakuma, we do not understand peace as political construct referring to the security situation in a locality but rather draw on Mac Ginty’s everyday peace which he conceptualises as “small acts of peace”. The concept refers to everyday routines and practices not only utilised by individuals but also by collectives to navigate existing difficulties. By placing refugee-led responses at the core of our contribution, we illustrate the various ways in which displaced people collectively engage for peace that exist beyond the safeguarding of direct physical security.
Our research shows that community-based organisations play a crucial role in addressing persisting hardships in the camp, offering self-organised assistance to the community for more comfort and happiness. They provide, for instance, food to those specifically in need, offer counselling services or jointly do leisure activities, herewith creating a sense of people feeling at peace. Furthermore, these organisations establish meeting places for people to share their stories, learn from each other and find ways to address potential tensions, ultimately contributing to a more peaceful environment at large. In the following, we focus on Easy Fitgang as an example, whose members shared vivid reports of their activities during our research.
Physical and mental well-being as response to hardships and trauma
In Kakuma, a group of young people places peace at the core of their collective engagement within the community-based organisation Easy Fitgang. It was initiated in 2020 by camp residents from Burundi, DR Congo and Uganda together with Kenyan nationals and later officially registered as a refugee-led community-based organisation by the Kenyan authorities. The displaced individuals sought protection in Kenya after fleeing violent conflict, insecurities and prevailing risks in their countries of origin. As the founding members revealed, the confrontation with the restrictive environment of the camp, harsh living conditions, remote location, legal constraints, aid dependencies and uncertainties about the future had caused a lot of mental distress for them. One of the organisation’s leaders from Burundi pointed out:
“I observed that mental health issues and negative coping mechanisms are prevalent in the camp, especially among the young generation. The camp lacks spaces that can accommodate these youth and provide necessary room where they can focus on their own well-being. The population, majorly young men and women, struggle with psycho-social challenges due to traumatising experiences caused by violence and conflict when fleeing their home countries.” (Man, Kakuma, 7 October 2022, field notes)
As a reaction to this perception, the youth met to discuss possible responses. Consequently, they created an open space where the young generation from the refugee and the local Turkana community who love fitness could meet, workout and interact with each other. Individual sport activities, such as yoga, weightlifting and running exercises, had been a means to deal with stressful situations for many of the founders. Hence, engaging in collective practices was identified as significant added value to deal with the above described hardships. As the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing challenges, they organised for joint outdoor exercises as a way of coping and finding ways of staying distracted with sports.
Whereas physical fitness and the joy of doing sports guides the group’s activities, they emphasise the equal importance of mental wellness that they seek to foster with their initiative. Easy Fitgang offers physical fitness activities on a weekly basis which include cardio, aerobics, yoga, dance and self-defence classes, and organises socialising activities, such as joint hikes and team building events. It thus combines physical exercises with communal gatherings. This, for example, also includes the provision of spaces for mourning together. After having lost a friend, the group offered a hike to remember the deceased collectively.
According to the group leaders, the organisation considers itself as provider of an environment where people feel protected and secure, where they can release stress and thus relax for a while. Members highlight that offering such a space of distraction and social interaction with peers helps to cope with life in the camp and to heal from traumatic experiences during flight and displacement. One team member from Uganda emphasised “a peaceful state of mind” (Woman, Kakuma 26 September 2022, dialogue) as Easy Fitgang’s important contribution in her life. This resonates with MacGinty’s idea of everyday peace as “a coping mechanism and a survival strategy” that people use to manage their daily life. The focus on the creation of physical and mental well-being of the youth in Kakuma thus enables people to find moments of peace for themselves within these activities and social get-togethers, and helps to achieve feelings of inner peacefulness, content and ease.
Building peaceful relations among different groups in Kakuma
Next to the focus on the individual self, Easy Fitgang’s practices further aim to impact the community at large. The organisation involves many different nationalities living in the camp and members of the local Turkana population as well. Everybody is welcome to join the physical fitness sessions and the social activities. It thus is a room for different people to meet, get to know each other and exchange. With this approach the group leaders seek to overcome divides that partly exists between different groups, nationalities, gender identities and sexual orientations in the camp that have at particular moments contributed to tensions. They believe that their openness and space for interaction constitutes the context in which divisions can be overcome and friendships develop. In a broader sense, this eventually has positive impacts on peaceful relations within the community. Thus, one of the organisation’s leaders from DR Congo stressed the impact of the organisation’s work:
“[I]t contributes immensely in bringing peace because people are coming to Fitgang to do workouts but it is not just people from one tribe coming but different tribes. For us to be able to play and exercise together, we must be in agreement with each other. This contributes to a got relationship between different tribes.” (Man, Kakuma, 3 October 2022, dialogue)
Given that additionally the activities not only address the various groups in the camp but also the local Kenyan population, Fitgang places emphasis on awareness and appreciation of diversity and as one of the leaders from Burundi underlined: “Fitgang teaches to accept people.” (Man, Kakuma, 10 October 2023, workshop contribution).
Through interaction people learn that they face similar challenges as others, thus they recognise those aspects that unite them, instead on purely focusing on those dividing them. Ultimately, according to the group leaders, by bringing many different groups together, Fitgang promotes peaceful relations among people living in and around Kakuma refugee camp. Thus, on a broader scale, the organisation’s activities also contribute to a better social climate within the entire community.
By building networks and cooperations with other initiatives, Fitgang continues creating opportunities for further activities. For instance, in 2023, with the support of a NGO, they held a sport and yoga retreat for 60 youth for which they got permission to travel to Lake Turkana and spent three days outside of the camp. The chance to explore a different environment with a diverse group of people was widely perceived as great contribution to individuals’ psychological well-being as well as collective understanding among each other. To further foster the creation of a peaceful state for displaced individuals and the community, the organisation envisions the establishment of a youth center as safe social space for young people from the camp and the local Turkana community where they can meet to develop their sports talents and socialise with each other to ultimately improve their personal mental health and the coexistence with one another in Kakuma.
Conclusion
Research on displaced people’s peace practices shows that, rather than passively submitting to prevailing problems, they actively organise to address the challenges they face in protracted exile. Part of their various practices are joint contributions to peaceful conditions in camp situations as this exploration of a refugee-led community-based organisation in Kakuma in Kenya has illustrated. These practices are not merely focused on ensuring physical security in the camp but primarily concern everyday patterns and routines people employ individually and collectively. The community-based organisation Easy Fitgang shows how displaced individuals jointly create spaces to achieve a more peaceful state of mind and to foster peaceful relations among the diverse camp population and the Kenyan host society. It thus exemplifies one of the numerous ways in which displaced people utilise their agency to cope with existing uncertainties and build more peaceful conditions in their everyday lives in Kakuma. While our research and the engagement with one community-based organisation in this blog post particularly has shown the importance of considering displaced people’s peace practices, there is need for further research to obtain knowledge on how they manoeuvre structural restrictions and contribute to peace in their environments in and beyond the camp.
The research project “Women, Forced Migration – and Peace? Peacebuilding Practices of Women in Refugee Camps” (2019-2023) was funded by the German Foundation for Peace Research.