Kakuma, Kenya

The camp in northwestern Kenya that became home to the Lost Boys of Sudan and many others.

The Lost Boys arrive

Kakuma was established in 1992 in the dry northwest of Kenya, as thousands of Sudanese children and young people, the Lost Boys, arrived after being driven out of camps in Ethiopia.

A long stay

Kakuma grew to host refugees from South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and elsewhere. Many residents spent a decade or more there. Some, like the Lost Boys resettled in the United States around 2000 and 2001, went on to build new lives far away.

Connected stories

Gai Nyok spent about nine years in a Kenyan camp before his resettlement in Virginia in 2001.