Maker

Abstract

This chapter tells the story of Maker, aged twenty-seven, a South Sudanese refugee in Kakuma whose one-person household sits at the ninetieth percentile of the income distribution. Sent by his parents to ‘go and study’, he rebuilt his education from primary school upwards and pursued a series of short health-related courses. He now works six to seven days a week as a lab technician and pharmacy assistant in a refugee-run clinic in Kalobeyei, making him part of the small minority of adults in Kakuma with an income-generating job. His story shows how education, remittances, and small household size can translate into higher earnings, a more diverse diet, and small luxuries such as eating in restaurants, nice clothes, and airtime. Through work, study, basketball, and music, Maker frames Kakuma as ‘a place of opportunity’.