In recent years the industrialized world has sought to recover from a devastating global pandemic. It was a disaster that had separated people from those they loved, confined families to small spaces and robbed their freedom to pursue life, work, and relationships within healthy community. It had wreaked havoc on social systems, preyed upon the vulnerable, and threatened people with despair.
But such a story was already long familiar to the South Sudanese women living in the Kakuma camp of northwest Kenya. Kakuma has received refugees and asylum seekers (the majority from South Sudan) since 1992. Today it remains home to nearly 215,000 people who have been displaced by numerous threats like violent conflict and famine. People have been cut off from their ancestral and geographical roots, confined by poverty and sociopolitical status, and forced to form a new semblance of community among others similarly traumatized. (1)
All of South Sudan has endured tremendous loss of life, property, and opportunity to thrive. In 2024, more than 42% of the population is under 14 years, while the average age is only 18. Women are generally undervalued. They are not educated or empowered to positively impact society, but are married quite young with a primary purpose to bear children and maintain the home. Tragically, more women die in childbirth here than anywhere else in the world. (2) The Sudanese women in Kakuma were born into such misfortune, then displaced into a foreign land.
Sports Friends has been training coaches in Kakuma for several years. We have seen God bring healing and unity between tribes and nationalities as boys and young men cross social boundaries to become teammates. But the women had already grown accustomed to their invisibility to broader society, to their voicelessness and traditionally assigned inferiority. Even within the Church, where God has called His daughters to carry His Name and Spirit, to prophesy, to represent Him with wisdom, courage, gentleness, and strength, the women were too oppressed and traumatized to remember who they were. (3)
So in 2022, female Sports Friends staff began to focus on serving the women. Beginning with the pastors’ wives, they formed a group to guide women toward understanding their deep preciousness to God, as well as His desire to empower them to change the world around them. The process took much longer than originally expected; the wounds of trauma run deep and it requires a tremendous amount of courageous work to face terrifying memories and unjust realities, even with the word of God as one’s foundation. Yet these women persevered. They began to discover their God-given value and voice, to live more freely, even to leverage their unique characteristics to uplift others. The women encouraged their daughters to join Sports Friends teams, where they were welcomed and still receive training and discipleship.
More groups have formed now in Kakuma to escort women toward healing and restoration. Pray with us that these women will continue to grow in confidence and delight in their true identity as daughters of God. Pray for them as they become leaders within the church and community. Pray for their relationships with their husbands and children, and that God will transform traumatized families. Pray for protection of body, mind, and spirit, as trauma profoundly impacts all three and plants many “triggers” the enemy eagerly uses to sabotage growth. Pray for our coaches who are helping young girls emerge as a new generation of God’s little women, who know they have an important role to play and are ready to get in the game.
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(1) UNHCR: Kakuma Refugee Camp: https://www.unhcr.org/ke/kakuma-refugee-camp
(2) World Fact Book: https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/south-sudan/
(3) Acts 2:17, Proverbs 31