Closing Information Gaps in Kakuma Refugee Camp: A Youth Participatory Action Research Study

This study explores the role of academic and social support on young people’s educational pursuits in Kenya’s Kakuma Refugee Camp. Pairing ethnographic methods with youth participatory action research, we find that support often manifests as abstract, decontextualized encouragement with little grounding in the educational opportunity structure. We argue that this motivational discourse generates information gaps, fueling aspirations that neither prepare youth for understanding, nor navigating the constraints they will encounter. In response, we designed a social media platform orienting Kakuma youth to the opportunity structure, while encouraging them to set realistic goals and plan accordingly. Designing a resource by, for, and with Kakuma youth, we illustrate that refugees have the rights and means to access information on which their everyday well‐being and futures depend. This study illustrates that critical understanding of local and global opportunities can empower, rather than demoralize, young people as they shape their futures in exile.HighlightsEducational support has limited value when decontextualized from opportunity structures.Critical understanding of opportunity constraints can empower, rather than demoralize, youth.Balancing hope and critical awareness is a central challenge in participatory action research, and in settings of forced displacement.Refugee youth advocate for their right to information on which their well‐being and futures depend.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147082/1/ajcp12277_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147082/2/ajcp12277.pd