Where We Work

In the fall of 2001, FilmAid International launched programming in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in North Western Kenya at the request of the UNHCR and IRC. By 2004 FilmAid was working in the Mtendeli and Nduta camps in Tanzania and the Dadaab camps in Eastern Kenya.  With shorter term projects also active in Sudan, Uganda and Yemen, East Africa quickly became FilmAid’s largest area of operations.

Today FilmAid runs comprehensive programs in Kakuma and Dadaab, screening films to offer much needed relief and entertainment and, most importantly, providing lifesaving information on health and security issues. FilmAid operates a filmmaker training program in each of the camps, providing young refugees with the skills and equipment to tell their own stories. Each film which FilmAid produces in the camps is also made with full community involvement. Through these programs and others, such as The Refugee newspaper published by FilmAid in Dadaab, FilmAid is able to provide essential communication services for the refugee community.

The importance of FilmAid’s ongoing work in Kenya’s refugee camps has been highlighted by recent famine and ongoing violent conflict in the region, which saw the population of Dadaab rapidly swell to more than 450,000, making it by far the largest refugee settlement in the world. FilmAid responded to this crisis by setting up screening programs for all new refugee arrivals in Dadaab, providing critical information on the registration process, food distribution, health services refugee rights and other issues.

In 2008 FilmAid began production and screening programs for non-refugee populations in Kenya, focusing on vulnerable youth groups and Nairobi’s informal settlements. A 2009 project, Fitinabox, dealt with livelihoods, unemployment and tribalism. Sita Kimya, launched in 2010, is part of comprehensive sexual and gender based violence campaign in the Kibera and Mathare slums. And in 2011 FilmAid partnered with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to produce a radio drama series on safe migration and resource conflict which reached an audience of around half a million in northern Kenya. Through these programs and many more FilmAid continues to expand the scope of our East African activities.