A total of 80 Sudanese and South Sudanese refugees graduated on Friday after successfully completing an 18-month training course in trauma healing and reconciliation at Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya.

Solidarity Ministries Africa for Reconciliation and Development (SMARD) organized the training in partnership with Christian organizations operating within the camp.

 “We brought this training here after seeing so many suicide cases and inter-communal fighting among refugees to reconcile them and give them hope of life,” said James Baak Nhial, the executive director of SMARD.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj after their graduation, several refugees said the training will greatly benefit them.

Mubark El-Jabana, the head of churches at Kakuma camp, lauded the trainers for sharing their knowledge with trainees.

“It was my first time to see all ethnic groups of South Sudan, including our brothers from Sudan coming together to share the same platform of healing and reconciliation,” one of the trainees said.

 Established in 1991 under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Kakuma refugee camp, which is located at Kenya’s border with South Sudan, is home to more than 190,000 refugees and asylum seekers of over 18 different nationalities.