CNN reports:
Young, mainly in their 20s, sometimes younger, these student refugees share a similar narrative. Their villages, tucked away in the remote regions of South Kordofan in the Sudan, became uninhabitable: They were rained down on with rockets; they could no longer grow food, keep cattle, go to school.
image courtesy of UNHCR
They joined 15,000 other refugees in Ajuong Thok camp in South Sudan (Yida camp, closer to the Sudanese border, houses an additional 70,000). Now, they want their stories to be heard. They are citizen journalists in the making.
Last November, Kathryn Mahoney, a communication officer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and a self-described "repository of stories" launched an initiative that trained 21 students from the community in digital storytelling through smartphones.
"I travel around and meet these amazing refugees who have been through some of the most horrifying situations, and my responsibility is to help them get their story out, to amplify their voice," she says.
"But as humanitarians, we forget that these are their stories to tell."
